Nanofibers Production, Properties and Functional Applications

With the prompt development of nanoscience and nanotechnology over the last years, great progress has been made not only in the preparation and characterisation of nanomaterials, but also in their functional applications. As an important one-dimensional nanomaterial, nanofibres have enormously high specific surface area because of their small diameters, and nanofiber membranes are extremely porous with excellent pore interconnectivity. These unique characteristics plus the functionalities from the materials themselves impart nanofibres with a number of novel properties for applications in areas as various as biomedical engineering, wound healing, drug delivery and release control, catalyst and enzyme carriers, filtration, environment protection, composite reinforcement, sensors, optics, energy harvest and storage , and many others. Special properties of nanofibres make them suitable for a wide range of applications from medical to consumer products and industrial to high-tech applications for aerospace, capacitors, transistors, drug delivery systems, battery separators, energy storage, fuel cells, and information technology. Nanofibres have significant applications in the area of filtration since their surface area is substantially greater and have smaller micropores than melt blown (MB) webs. High porous structure with high surface area makes them ideally suited for many filtration applications. Nanofibres are ideally suited for filtering submicron particles from air or water. This book provides an up-to-date coverage of nanofiber preparation, properties and functional applications. The text will be of immense useful for anyone allied with the discipline of nanofibres.