Biohybrid Polymer Nanofibers for Sensor and Energy Applications

Abstract

Electrospun polymeric nanofibers and nanostructures have becomes a versatile need in numerous applications from the lab to different industrial sectors, which can fulfill needs in important applications including basic amenities such as ultrafiltration membranes, medical products, energy storage, and energy harvesting. Nanostructured polymeric materials have a large surface adsorption area and better interactions with other molecules and atoms because of their near-quantum properties with surface energy–tunable electrons. As such, fabrication of films with nanoporous membranes and nanoporous dimensional structures leads to different physical and chemical properties. The classification of polymeric nanomaterials can be differentiated by the presence of nanostructures such as nanospheres, nanocubes, nanofibers, etc. in polymer films. Among them, polymeric nanofibers play an important role because they can be fabricated in bulk at a low cost and offer better efficacy in different applications because their physical and chemical properties can be customized. Among the different methods used for producing nanofiber structures, electrospinning is a versatile method for numerous applications. The versatility of this method depends on the materials used in it for convenience of fabrication of different nanofiber structures. Fabrication can be achieved by integrating and optimizing different collector assemblies, which leads to a top-down approach in bulk fabrication and production. Also, we can achieve various integrated enhancements in electrospinning and in the process of electrospun fiber formation for fabrication of different materials with nanofiber structures. The need for polymeric nanofibers continues to increase to meet essential needs in modern society. This is due to the special properties of nanofiber-structured substrates with high surface adsorption, different surface properties, enhancement of the mechanical properties of bulk material nanostructures (such as increased tensile strength with lesser mass), quantum and subwavelength transmission of light, and optical properties for sensing. This chapter provides a detailed discussion of the above content, mainly focused on biohybrid material enhancement through use of different working principles and techniques for fabrication of sensors and devices for energy storage and energy harvesting.