Engineers Put a New Spin on Nanofibers

Hailed as a cross between a high-speed centrifuge and a cotton candy machine, bioengineers at Harvard have developed a practical technology for fabricating tiny nanofibers. The reference by lead author Mohammad Reza Badrossamay to the fairground treat of spun sugar is deliberate, as the device literally – and just as easily – spins, stretches, and pushes out 100µm-diameter polymer-based threads using a rotating drum and nozzle.

“This is a vastly superior method to making nanofibers as compared to typical methods, with production output many times greater,” says co-author Kit Parker, Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Applied Science and Associate Professor of Bioengineering in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS); a core faculty member of the Wyss Institue for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard; and member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

A magnified view of the nanofibers. To the right is a diagram of the rotary jet spinner; the resulting spun nanofibers; and the nanofibers viewed at 10µm.

By contrast, the most common method of creating nanofibers is through electrospinning, or sending a high voltage electric charge into a droplet of polymer liquid to draw out long wisps of nanoscale threads. While effective, electrospinning offers limited control and low output of the desired fibers.

The Harvard researchers turned to a simpler solution, using rotary jet spinning. Quickly feeding and then rotating the polymer material inside a reservoir atop a controllable motor offers more control and greater yield.

When spun, the material stretches much like molten sugar does as it begins to dry into thin, silky ribbons. Just as in cotton candy production, the nanofibers are extruded through a nozzle by a combination of hydrostatic and centrifugal pressure. The resulting pile of extruded fibers form into a bagel like shape about 10cm in diameter.

“The new system offers fabrication of naturally occurring and synthetic polymers as well as a lot of control over fiber alignment and web porosity, hierarchical and spatial organization of fibrous scaffold, and 3D assemblies,” Badrossamay says, a post-doctoral fellow in the Wyss Institute and a member of Parker’s lab at SEAS.

The researchers tested the new device using a variety of synthetic and natural polymers such as polylactic acid in chloroform, a biodegradable polymer created from corn starch or sugarcane.

Moreover, the rapid spinning method provides a high degree of flexibility as the diameter of the fibers can be readily manipulated and the structures can be integrated into an aligned 3D structure, or any shape, simply by varying how the fibers are collected. The shape of the fibers can also be altered, ranging from beaded to textured to smooth.

Badrossamay and Parker’s co-authors include Holly Alice McIlwee a bioengineering graduate student at SEAS, and Josue A. Goss, the DBG laboratory manager who built the machine with Badrossamay.

The researchers acknowledge the support of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) at Harvard; the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Harvard; and Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. The work was also funded in part by a National Science Foundation’s (NSF) graduate research fellowship program.