Dual nozzle electrospinning based on piezoelectric-conductive composites preparation: simulation and experiment

Abstract Electrospinning is a simple and versatile technique for producing nanofibers. However, conventional single-nozzle devices have inherent limitations in preparing functional composite nanofiber materials. Although dual-nozzle electrospinning provides a direct method for fabricating composite fibers, the integration of dual nozzles into the electrospinning system distorts the electric field distribution. This distortion induces Coulomb repulsion between the uniformly charged jets, resulting in an uneven distribution of heterogeneous fibers in the composite membrane. This unevenness significantly compromises the structural integrity of the material. In this study, we systematically developed an electrospinning simulation model for electric field analysis and jet trajectory prediction. We elucidated the repulsion mechanism between electric field heterogeneity and Coulomb forces in a single-power-supply dual-nozzle system and proposed a dynamic scanning deposition strategy to address the technical challenges of producing heterogeneous fiber composites. This strategy enabled the formation of composite piezoelectric and conductive polymer nanofibers. The resulting composite nanofibers exhibit both high piezoelectricity (d33 = 21.7 pC/N) and electrical conductivity (0.0646 S/m), confirming the effectiveness of the dynamic scanning deposition approach. Supported by the experimental validation of simulation reliability, this study provides a theoretical basis for optimizing the single-power-supply dual-nozzle electrospinning process to produce heterogeneous nanofiber composites.