A needleless electrospinning setup named 'Needleless Twisted Wire Electrospinning' was developed. The polymer solution is electrospun from the surface of a twisted wire set to a high voltage and collected on a cylindrical collector around the wire. Multiple Taylor cones are simultaneously self-formed on the downward flowing solution. The system is robust and simple with no moving parts aside from the syringe pump used to transport the solution to the top of the wire. The structure and process parameters of the setup and the results on the preparation of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), hydroxyapatite (HA) and bioglass fibers with the setup are presented. PVP fiber sheets with areas of 40 × 120 cm(2) and masses up to 1.15 g were prepared. High production rates of 5.23 g h(-1) and 1.40 g h(-1) were achieved for PVP and HA respectively. The major limiting factor of the setup is drying of the polymer solution on the wire during the electrospinning process which will eventually force to interrupt the process for cleaning of the wire. Possible solutions to this problem and other ways to develop the setup are discussed. The presented system provides a simple way to increase the production rate and area of fiber sheet as compared with the conventional needle electrospinning.

Lithium silicate thin films, which are interesting materials for example in lithium ion batteries, were grown by the atomic layer deposition technique from lithium hexamethyldisilazide [LiHMDS, Li(N(SiMe3)2)] and ozone precursors. Films were obtained at a wide deposition temperature range between 150 and 400 °C. All the films were amorphous except at 400 °C, where partial decomposition of LiHMDS was also observed. The growth behavior was examined in detail at 250 °C, and saturation of growth rates and refractive indices with precursor doses was confirmed, thereby verifying self-limiting surface reactions. Likewise, the linear thickness dependence of the films with the number of deposition cycles was verified. Strong dependence of growth rate and film composition on deposition temperature was also seen. Overall, the amorphous films grown at 250 °C had a stoichiometry close to lithium metasilicate (Li2.0SiO2.9) with 0.7 at. % carbon and 4.6 at. % hydrogen impurities. The corresponding growth rate and refractive index (n580) were 0.8 Å/cycle and about 1.55.