Consumer nanofibre products a decade away

Although nanofibre research and development have progressed tremendously in the past two decades, commercial products that appeal to consumers are a decade away.

In his speech this week at the 2014 TAPPI Conference in Nashville, tracing his journey from a chemist to a successful entrepreneur, Dr. Jayesh Doshi of cv, TN, highlighted the major advantages of nanofibre products in filters ranging from HVAC filters to ChemBio defense products.

Dr Jayesh Doshi was the first graduate student in the early 1990s in the United States to work on the electrospinning of nanofibres and rejuvenated the interest in this technology for developing nanofibres. Today, his company eSpin Technologies develops a myriad of products that involve wipes, filters, to name a few. In an answer to a question from this scribe, Dr Doshi stated, "in ten years, we may walk into a retail shop and see products with nanofibres." Dr Doshi stated cost is the driver in pushing nanofibres into consumer markets and hopefully within a decade, this may be a reality. According to him, residential air filters with nanofibres will be well accepted before products such as tissue scaffolds. By: Seshadri Ramkumar, Texas Tech University, USA