Figure 1.

Schematic diagram of an electrospinning setup and variations of electrospinning techniques. Therapeutic agents can be incorporated in nanofibers via blend, co-axial and emulsion electrospinning. Blend solution electrospinning results in the therapeutic agents being well distributed in the nanofibers. Co-axial electrospinning allows the therapeutic agents to be timely delivered from core-shell nanofibers. Emulsion electrospinning may form two types of nanofibers—either the emulsion (consisting of the therapeutic agents) coalesces to form a core similar to the fibers expected of the co-axial electrospinning technique, or the emulsion will disperse varyingly in the nanofibers. Two types of collectors are mainly used in electrospinning: (1) flat plate collectors fabricating non-aligned nanofibers and (2) rotating drum collectors fabricating aligned nanofibers.