# Mechanical and Dielectric Properties of Aligned Electrospun Fibers
## 1 Introduction
### History of Electrospinning  
The idea of electrospinning can be traced back to 1900, when [PERSON] received the patent for his apparatus for electrically separating the relatively volatile liquid component from the component of relatively fixed substances of composites [7]. Later in 1902, [PERSON] invented an apparatus for electrically dispersing fluids [8] and [PERSON] invented methods of dispersing fluids by the process of separating the volatile components and breaking up the fixed component from composite fluids [9]. [PERSON] received a patent in the year 1934 for his invention of producing polymer threads, using electrostatic force. In his paper titled \"Process and apparatus for preparing artificial threads\" [10], solutions of cellulose esters, specifically cellulose acetate were used for spinning. In US Patent No. 2,160,962 (1939), artificial fibers were collected as substantially parallel to each other on a moving collecting device [11]. There he introduced the term \"electrical spinning\" of fibers. In the spinning process there were difficulties in solidifying the formed fibers. In addition, the as-processed fibers were so sticky that, not only would they stick to the collecting device, but also they would stick to each other. He observed that it was difficult to control the paths of high-speed liquid streams and the corresponding fibers out of it. As shown in Figure 2, fiber direction guide (55 in Figure 2), which consists of shields (57 in Figure 2) to direct the fibers along fixed, predetermined paths toward the collecting electrodes was used. This invention made it possible to obtain smooth, continuous, compact, and coherent fiber bands composed of heterogeneous filaments arranged substantially parallel to each other.  
[PERSON] et al. (2016) reported that different nanofiber production methods include vapor growth, arc discharge, laser ablation, and chemical vapor deposition [12]. These processes are very expensive because of low product yield and high equipment cost. However, electrospinningning employs a top-down engineering approach, which can produce fibers with diameters ranging from 10 nm to 10 \(\upmu\)m, from a polymer solution, under the application of an electrostatic force [13; 14]. These fibers have a high surface area to volume ratio, high porosity, and tunable porosity [6]. According to [PERSON] et al. (2012), there are various spinning techniques available for producing micro and nanofibers [14]. Solution electrospinningning compared to melt electrospinningning requires a solvent. The melt electrospinninging method uses a molten polymer, but the absence of solvent excludes the effect of solvent properties on the fiber formation. In emulsion electrospinning, two immiscible fluids are used as in food-processing [15]. Magnetic electrospinningning and near-field electrospinningning are good examples of interdisciplinary technological convergence between magnetism and electric  
Figure 1: (a) Schematics of electrospinningning apparatus of vertical setup and (b) horizontal setup.  
potential methods. Dip-pen nanolithography with traditional electrospinning can also be used, but the alignment of fibers is not satisfactory [14].