The fibers hold promise for development of new breathable, waterproof materials. Four years ago, Rutledge and Randy Hill of Dow Corning created an electrospun sheet that is extremely water-repellent. Such a material, described in the journal Langmuir, has the potential to become a cheaper alternative to GoreTex, which is made of Teflon -- a more expensive starting material than the polymers used to make electrospun fibers. More recently, working with MIT professors Karen Gleason, Robert Cohen, Gareth McKinley and Michael Rubner, Rutledge's group has demonstrated a variety of ways to render breathable electrospun fabrics water- and oil-repellent.
Rutledge is now working on electrospun fibers made of block copolymers that self-assemble into a collection of concentric cylinders within the fiber. Such fibers, made possible by a co-axial version of electrospinning technology that the group reported in 2004, could be used to impart color to fabrics without dye, or to create "wearable power" by combining electrodes and electrolytes into individual fibers.
"There are a lot of ways one can imaginatively think to use some of this stuff," says Rutledge.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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