A new ultrahigh-speed method for the preparation of nanofibers containing living cells: a bridge towards industrial bioengineering applications.

A novel method is reported of producing nanofibers/nanotubes (measuring from tens of nanometres to several hundreds of nanometres) containing living cells, mechanically and with ultrahigh speed and at low cost. High-pressure gas was used to extrude viscous precursors through a spray with micron-sized holes into air. The sprayed micro-sized droplets had high velocity and were continuously elongated into uniform nanofibers/nanotubes in a temperature field during their flight. We demonstrated that the throughput of this spinning method to fabricate nanofibers/nanotubes from an individual setup could be as high as 10 g s(-1). A possible mechanism for this extrusion method was proposed based on flow mechanics and the experimental results. Additionally, it was shown that the new method could be used to directly prepare nanofibers containing living cells. It was demonstrated that the living cells with high survival rate can be used in bioengineering. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012