By Mads Sejer Nielsen, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Photo: AAU 

There was no cardio, cadence or “GET OFF THE SADDLE!” when six hard-working second semester students from Aalborg University published their scientific article on electrospinning.

With relentless diligence, they were able to call themselves authors less than a year after starting their education - an achievement described as both “extraordinary” and “very impressive” by their teacher and Associate Professor Peter Fojan.

A shining example: QR code spun into plastic
In the project, the students spun a luminescent QR code into a plastic mat using near-field electrospinning. This method makes it possible to embed information in the material itself - for example, what material the object is made of - similar to the watermarks on banknotes.

Although plastic fibers have been spun using the near-field technique before, the students are the first to do so with a type of plastic that cannot dissolve in water. They are also the first to create a readable QR code printed into a cellulose acetate mat using far-field electrospinning.

This has impressed supervisor and associate professor at Aalborg University, Peter Fojan:

“It's very impressive that they were able to take their project so far that it resulted in a research article. It's quite extraordinary for 2nd semester students to get this far,” he says.

A result of the PBL model 
It is partly based on Aalborg University's PBL model that the students have had the opportunity to work on the project in the university's laboratories. This has allowed them to put in more hours and see the results of their diligence.

“We have aimed for 'a higher goal' than just a good grade - and succeeding makes you more motivated for the next project. It's one of the things that gives recognition, and it feels cool to do it in the second semester,” says Frederik Hejgaard Gram.

He is backed up by fellow student Helene Halsen Malling:

“It was the process that was most interesting - the question of whether it could succeed. Our supervisor also wanted it to succeed, and then you probably get a little more enthusiasm and spend a few more hours in the lab,” she says.

Useful for the textile industry
Electrospinning is a process where a liquid - typically a polymer solution such as plastic - is subjected to a high electrical voltage to produce fibers.

When a sufficiently high voltage is applied to a liquid droplet, the liquid becomes charged and electrostatic repulsion counteracts the surface tension, causing the droplet to stretch.

At a critical point, a stream of liquid erupts from the surface - known as a Taylor cone. If the molecular cohesion of the liquid is sufficiently high, a charged liquid jet is formed, which is stretched and thinned by a whipping motion caused by electrostatic repulsion until it is finally deposited on a grounded collector.

The process of fiber spinning could be good news for the textile industry, where it can incorporate information about what material is in the textiles, making sorting and recycling easier.

Another potential application is in the field of watermarking.

You can read Michael Petersen, Noah Frederik Hallundbæk Bang, Liva Skou Boysen, Maria Ahrenst-Mortensen, Frederik Hejgaard Gram and Helene Halsen Malling's article here.