Systems and methods are provided for fabricating microneedle arrays that includes electrospun fibers preferentially disposed within the microneedles of the array. Providing the electrospun fibers preferentially in the microneedles allows for more of a drug or other substance present in the fibers to be deposited into tissue or to provide other benefits. A mold for forming the microneedle arrays includes an insulating surface layer. The insulating surface layer affects the electric field during electrospinning such that electrospun fibers are deposited preferentially within the microneedle cavities of the mold relative to the surface of the mold. A bulk material can then be applied to the mold to form the bulk of the microneedles with electrospun fibers embedded within and a backing layer to which the microneedles are attached.

There is provided a method and system for forming a composite material. The method includes: combining a first component element with a second component element to form a composite mixture; subjecting the composite mixture to a first force to in order to form ligaments and disperse the first component element and second component element in relation to each other, wherein the first force is a mechanical force, subjecting the ligaments to at least one second force in order to form attenuated ligaments and further disperse the first component element and second component element in relation to each other, wherein the at least one second force imparts both shear flow deformation and extensional flow deformation to the ligaments to form the attenuated ligaments; and collecting the attenuated ligaments. There is also provided a composite material prepared using the method described above.

A method of fabricating a polymer composite material by mixing a polymer material with a planar material, depositing the mixture on a substrate, and stretching the resulting thin film, is described. Polymer composite materials produced using said method and ballistic resistant materials comprising said polymer composite materials are also described.

The present invention provides piezoelectric bio-organic films resembling ceramic-based piezoelectric films, and also a fabrication method thereof. In particular, the bio-organic piezoelectric films are formed by compact nanocrystals resembling the inorganic ceramic structure, where nanocrystallization on biomaterials and in-situ electric field are applied to facilitate domain orientation alignment across the entire films. The present fabrication method provides flexibility to tune various parameters of the resulting bio-organic films according to the needs, and therefore is substantially applicable to a wide range of biomaterials to form piezoelectric bio-organic films comparable to those formed by conventional piezoceramics in terms of piezoelectricity, thermostability and durability.

An electrospinning device is provided with a container for holding a liquid comprising a polymer melt or a polymer solution, and a nozzle arranged to outlet a stream of the liquid from the container. A collector collects electro spun material during electrospinning so as to form a fibrous structure. The device comprises an optical measurement system that measures a baseline distance between the collector and the optical measurement system for at least one location on a surface of the collector, and also measures a momentary distance between the optical measurement system and a momentary top layer of the fibrous structure during the electrospinning process. A processor calculates a momentary thickness of the fibrous structure. Once a required thickness is reached the electrospinning can be stopped.

A method of fabricating a polymer composite material by mixing a polymer material with a planar material, depositing the mixture on a substrate, and stretching the resulting thin film, is described. Polymer composite materials produced using said method and ballistic resistant materials comprising said polymer composite materials are also described.

An apparatus for producing a fibrous material. The apparatus uses a first material source within which is disposed a first material and a second material source enclosing a second material. The first and second materials to be electrospun. A first and second tip attached to an end of the first and second material sources, with a collector spaced apart from the first and second material sources. A first and second electric field generator each produces a first and second signal each in the form of a sine wave and having a first and second frequency. The fibers are formed from the first and second materials as extracted from the respective first and second tips responsive to a first and second electric field generated between the respective first and second tips and the collector.

A system and method is provided for creating a structure including a vasculature network. A film deposition device is configured to dispense droplets onto a surface of a substrate to form a curable fugitive pre-patterned liquid film on the surface of the substrate. An electrohydrodynamic film patterning (EHD-FP) device has a patterned electrode structure formed to generate an electric field and to subject the film on the surface of the substrate to the electric field. The film thereby being formed by the EHD-FP into patterned features in response to being subjected to the electric field. Then a casting system is configured to cover the patterned features in an epoxy to form patterned structures, wherein the patterned structures comprise a fugitive vasculature structure.

Described herein are apparatuses and methods of creating fibers, such as microfibers and nanofibers for the production of clothing items and footwear. Also described herein is a microfiber and/or nanofiber coating system having a support that holds an object to be coated by fibers during the coating process. The support may move the object with respect to the fibers, such that at least a portion of each of the exterior surfaces of the object are coated by the fibers formed by the microfiber and/or nanofiber coating system.

Apparatus for producing a three dimensional nanofiber structure includes (1) at least two spaced electrodes; (2) a spinner adapted to rotate the at least two spaced electrodes; (3) a syringe assembly adapted to eject a polymer solution from a syringe of the syringe assembly towards the at least two spaced electrodes while the at least two spaced electrodes are rotated by the spinner; and (4) a power supply assembly for providing the two spaced electrodes at a first electric potential, and for providing the syringe at a second electric potential which is different from the first electric potential. A composition of matter may include (1) a least one layer of nanofibers in which a distribution of angles of fibers is aligned; and (2) at least one gel layer, wherein the at least one layer of microfibers and the at least one gel layer alternate to form a laminate.