Jorge J. Santiago-Aviles | University of Pennsylvania (original) (raw)

Papers by Jorge J. Santiago-Aviles

FIE'99 Frontiers in Education. 29th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Designing the Future of Science and Engineering Education. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.99CH37011

UPR-Humacao is a campus of the University of Puerto Rico located in the East Coast of the Island.... more UPR-Humacao is a campus of the University of Puerto Rico located in the East Coast of the Island. It is a small, fundamentally undergraduate college serving a student body of 4300. Its demographics are impressive to the extent that, of this number, 150 are participating in an Applied Physics (Electronics) program and 80 in the Computational Mathematics program. This is a far higher ratio (230/4300) than any other institution on the Island and perhaps of any comparable institution in the U.S. In 1998 we were awarded a NSF CIRE (Collaborative to Integrate Research and Education) grant for the purpose of establishing a collaborative between UPR-Humacao and University of Pennsylvania. The aim is to enhance the research in materials-related areas and the establishment of a materials science program at the undergraduate and graduate level at Humacao. The curricular ideas are implemented utilizing this collaborative as a backbone. At the core of this collaborative is the utilization of technology. The day-today student-professor interaction is supplemented by technology in the classroom. We are using video conferencing for real time demonstrations, interactive laboratories, seminars and regular classroom work. In addition, we are utilizing a CD-ROM-based textbook (developed by a Penn professor throughout the aegis of NSF) for an introductory course on the new program in Materials Science. This novel program, projected for year 2000 at both undergraduate and graduate (MS) levels, has benefited from Penn's REU programs during the last 10 years. This student exchange has provided a great deal of impetus to increase the research participation among Humacao's undergraduate constituency. The project also sponsors a faculty development component. We have established a one-to-one relation between faculty at UPR-Humacao and Penn. Research inclinations have been utilized as the primary criterion for these parings. All the research work relates to the general area of Materials Science.

IEEE Transactions On Nanotechnology, 2004

endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or per... more endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

Carbon fibers with diameters of approximately 100 nm can be produced by heating electrospun polya... more Carbon fibers with diameters of approximately 100 nm can be produced by heating electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers in a reduced-pressure chamber. These nanofibers’ outstanding properties, especially their high specific surface area, make them promising materials for scaffolds in tissue engineering and also for high-performance filtration and sensor applications. However before any of these potential uses can be explored, the nature of these nanofibers must first be better understood. One important quantum effect phenomenon that occurs in carbon nanofibers is magnetoresistance (MR).This is a measure of how the electrical resistance of the carbon nanofiber changes in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. To make this measurement, the PAN nanofibers were placed in the right orientation on a patterned silicon wafer by electrospinning. The PAN nanofiber samples were then pyrolyzed in a vacuum chamber at a temperature of 1173K to produce carbon nanofiber samples. The fo...

Macromolecular Bioscience, 2008

Aqueous suspendible polymer nanostructures were prepared by simple microtome processing of electr... more Aqueous suspendible polymer nanostructures were prepared by simple microtome processing of electrospun nylon 6 nanofibers and were used to immobilize calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase (ALP) by either covalent or noncovalent bioconjugation chemistries. It was found that noncovalent immobilization of ALP to the mechanically cut nanofibers (mean length % 4 mm; mean diameter % 80 nm) using a multi-stacked, layer-by-layer (LBL) approach with the cationic polymer Sapphire II TM resulted in the highest enzyme loading (48.1 AE 0.4 mg Á mg À1 nanofiber) when compared to other covalent immobilization methods based on glutaraldehyde crosslinking. The biofunctionalized nanofibers were also characterized for their chemiluminescent activity with the dioxetane substrate, CSPD TM. The results indicate that the kinetic parameters, K m and V max , for the catalytic activity of the nanostructure-bound ALP enzyme were influenced by the particular types of immobilization methods employed. In terms of the overall catalytic performance of the various immobilized ALP systems, a single-stacked LBL assembly approach resulted in the highest level of enzymatic activity per unit mass of nanofiber support. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first report examining the preparation of mechanically shortened, aqueous dispersed electrospun polymer nanofibers for potential application as enzyme scaffolds in chemiluminescent-based assay systems.

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2013

Every day use of appliances relies mostly in lithium-ion batteries to satisfy their energy requir... more Every day use of appliances relies mostly in lithium-ion batteries to satisfy their energy requirements. However, the materials utilized and their lower power densities limit these batteries' desirability. An alternative to batteries is the supercapacitors, which are capable of storing energy in the electrical double layer (EDL) formed between the electrode material and the electrolyte. To reduce the gap in terms on energy and power density between batteries and EDL supercapacitor, pseudocapacitors has been used. In pseudo-capacitors a material that is capable of storing faradaic charge, such as metal oxides and conducting polymers, is deposited in the electrode surface, but its charge / discharge behavior approximate that of the EDL supercapacitor. Therefore, energy density is gained even though the faradaic nature of the process makes its power density decreases. In this paper, we use the conducting polymer, poly-(3,4 propylene-dioxythiophene) for the assembling of a pseudo-capacitor. We present the electrochemical characterization of the devices as a function of the amount of material accumulated in the platinum current collector, in terms of the capacitance, energy, and power density.

Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, 2005

Microfluidic oscillators were obtained from wall attachment microfluidic amplifiers using a feedb... more Microfluidic oscillators were obtained from wall attachment microfluidic amplifiers using a feedback loop from the outputs to the control inputs. These devices can be used as flow meters when the oscillation frequency is proportional to the volumetric flow rate in subsonic and moderately compressible conditions. They can also be used as actuators, for applications involving flow control and/or mixing. The

SnO 2 micro/nano fibers in the rutile structure were synthesized using electrospinning and metall... more SnO 2 micro/nano fibers in the rutile structure were synthesized using electrospinning and metallorganic decomposition techniques. Fibers were electrospun using two different precursor solutions, one based on SnCl 4 and the other on C 22 H 44 O 4 Sn. The fibers were sintered in air for two hours at 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 • C. SEM, AFM, XRD, XPS and Raman microspectrometry were used to characterize the sintered fibers. The results showed that the fibers were composed of SnO2 and that the SnCl4 precursor led to better results in terms of uniformity/continuity of the fibers.

2021 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 1999

Often the designer of small electro-mechanical systems is willing to sacrifice small size and pow... more Often the designer of small electro-mechanical systems is willing to sacrifice small size and power consumption for the sake of low cost, ease of processing and enhanced yield. We have been working on the utilization of Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic tapes (LTCC) for the implementation of intermediate scale (meso-scale) devices with the simultaneously or secondary task of micro-electronic packaging. We have designed and implemented several sensors and actuators having in common the utilization of electro-magnetic forces and interactions as the fundamental working mechanism. For this purpose we have designed and constructed a series of coils utilizing LTCC tapes suitable for multiple sensing and actuating tasks. As sensors, we have implemented a proximity sensor and a non-contact displacement sensor and a differential pressure sensor with a ferrofluidic core. As actuators we have implemented a normally closed valve and a Joule effect heater.

2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2018

A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology, electronics, and systems engin... more A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology, electronics, and systems engineering for the benefit of University of Pennsylvania engineering students, plus teachers and students from three community public schools located in Philadelphia. The course engaged participants in the design and the implementation of an indoor cultivating system using photo-voltaic technology to energize Light Emitting Diodes emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or per... more endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detect... more Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detection in vivo as well as in vitro. Electrochemical detection provides the required cellular level determination of NO among several other techniques. In this work, electrochemical micro-sensors for both types of detection, in vivo and in vitro, were developed, exploring the silicon planar technology, which presents high yield and reliability and also permits batch fabrication. The developed in vitro sensor features eight detection sites (10 µm x 10 µm microelectrodes), for determination of nitric oxide spatial distribution or multi-species analysis. Different electrochemical methods were applied to provide sensor calibration and chemical reproducibility. For in vivo analysis, the designed structures have a needle shape (40 µm thick) and they were silicon micro-machined by using plasma etching or etch stop techniques. Different configurations were designed and implemented, containing a numb...

See next page for additional authors

Meso-scale (approximately 10 µm to 1000 µm) systems have a variety of applications, including use... more Meso-scale (approximately 10 µm to 1000 µm) systems have a variety of applications, including use in medical and biological fields, automotives, and space technology. An electro-kinetic device for manipulating and moving biological micro-particles is the focus of this paper. Rectilinear motion of the particles is caused by using traveling wave dielectrophoresis. The theory behind dielectrophoresis (DC and AC), design, forces, fabrication methods, and results, are discussed. 1.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 1999

Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detect... more Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detection in vivo as well as in vitro. Electrochemical detection provides the required cellular level determination of NO among several other techniques. In this work, electrochemical micro-sensors for both types of detection, in vivo and in vitro, were developed, exploring the silicon planar technology, which presents high yield and reliability and also permits batch fabrication. The developed in vitro sensor features eight detection sites (10 μm × 10 μm microelectrodes), for determination of nitric oxide spatial distribution or multi-species analysis. Different electrochemical methods were applied to provide sensor calibration and chemical reproducibility. For in vivo analysis, the designed structures have a needle shape (40 μm thick) and they were silicon micro-machined by using plasma etching or etch stop techniques. Different configurations were designed and implemented, containing a numb...

2019 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2019

Learning by doing is a bit of a mantra at the Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GG... more Learning by doing is a bit of a mantra at the Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST), an all-girls High School located in the village of Gashora in Rwanda. No doubt theory and formal education are of vital importance in learning science and technology, but building, fabricating, assembling, writing or coding, integrate the best of theoretical and experiential learning. Doing so provides students with the type of satisfaction that rewards them with something of substantial value upon completion of their scholarly effort. Through experience, we have found that this is perhaps one of the most ideal ways to relate to our students. For this exercise in the form of a collaborative effort, formally a service-learning course at University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the two co-authors have been engaged with the GGAST and Penn students during the last five years. Spending a few weeks each summer in residence in Gashora and maintaining year-round collaboration via online meetings and shared resources, we used as a guide and foundation the ideas expressed in a previous publication [1], with our audience was Penn students.

The fabrication and properties of carbon nanofibers are interesting because of the fiber’s expect... more The fabrication and properties of carbon nanofibers are interesting because of the fiber’s expected conductivity properties. If we can successfully control the fabrication and manipulation of carbon nanofibers we should be able to build nanoscale electronics. In this attempt, we have been able to successfully control some of the properties for the fabrication of nanofibers. Carbon nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning a polymer solution, polyacrylonitrile, and then heating it on a vacuum furnace. Thermal analysis helped us determine the minimum heating temperature that the fibers must be exposed to obtain carbon fibers. The relationship between voltage, and the amount of solvent, with the thickness of the fibers was studied using a scanning electron microscope. A strongly non-linear relationship between the voltage and the thickness suggests a sinusoidal relationship. On the other hand, a linear relationship between the amount of solvent and the inverse of the thickness was ob...

FIE'99 Frontiers in Education. 29th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Designing the Future of Science and Engineering Education. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.99CH37011

UPR-Humacao is a campus of the University of Puerto Rico located in the East Coast of the Island.... more UPR-Humacao is a campus of the University of Puerto Rico located in the East Coast of the Island. It is a small, fundamentally undergraduate college serving a student body of 4300. Its demographics are impressive to the extent that, of this number, 150 are participating in an Applied Physics (Electronics) program and 80 in the Computational Mathematics program. This is a far higher ratio (230/4300) than any other institution on the Island and perhaps of any comparable institution in the U.S. In 1998 we were awarded a NSF CIRE (Collaborative to Integrate Research and Education) grant for the purpose of establishing a collaborative between UPR-Humacao and University of Pennsylvania. The aim is to enhance the research in materials-related areas and the establishment of a materials science program at the undergraduate and graduate level at Humacao. The curricular ideas are implemented utilizing this collaborative as a backbone. At the core of this collaborative is the utilization of technology. The day-today student-professor interaction is supplemented by technology in the classroom. We are using video conferencing for real time demonstrations, interactive laboratories, seminars and regular classroom work. In addition, we are utilizing a CD-ROM-based textbook (developed by a Penn professor throughout the aegis of NSF) for an introductory course on the new program in Materials Science. This novel program, projected for year 2000 at both undergraduate and graduate (MS) levels, has benefited from Penn's REU programs during the last 10 years. This student exchange has provided a great deal of impetus to increase the research participation among Humacao's undergraduate constituency. The project also sponsors a faculty development component. We have established a one-to-one relation between faculty at UPR-Humacao and Penn. Research inclinations have been utilized as the primary criterion for these parings. All the research work relates to the general area of Materials Science.

IEEE Transactions On Nanotechnology, 2004

endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or per... more endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

Carbon fibers with diameters of approximately 100 nm can be produced by heating electrospun polya... more Carbon fibers with diameters of approximately 100 nm can be produced by heating electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers in a reduced-pressure chamber. These nanofibers’ outstanding properties, especially their high specific surface area, make them promising materials for scaffolds in tissue engineering and also for high-performance filtration and sensor applications. However before any of these potential uses can be explored, the nature of these nanofibers must first be better understood. One important quantum effect phenomenon that occurs in carbon nanofibers is magnetoresistance (MR).This is a measure of how the electrical resistance of the carbon nanofiber changes in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. To make this measurement, the PAN nanofibers were placed in the right orientation on a patterned silicon wafer by electrospinning. The PAN nanofiber samples were then pyrolyzed in a vacuum chamber at a temperature of 1173K to produce carbon nanofiber samples. The fo...

Macromolecular Bioscience, 2008

Aqueous suspendible polymer nanostructures were prepared by simple microtome processing of electr... more Aqueous suspendible polymer nanostructures were prepared by simple microtome processing of electrospun nylon 6 nanofibers and were used to immobilize calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase (ALP) by either covalent or noncovalent bioconjugation chemistries. It was found that noncovalent immobilization of ALP to the mechanically cut nanofibers (mean length % 4 mm; mean diameter % 80 nm) using a multi-stacked, layer-by-layer (LBL) approach with the cationic polymer Sapphire II TM resulted in the highest enzyme loading (48.1 AE 0.4 mg Á mg À1 nanofiber) when compared to other covalent immobilization methods based on glutaraldehyde crosslinking. The biofunctionalized nanofibers were also characterized for their chemiluminescent activity with the dioxetane substrate, CSPD TM. The results indicate that the kinetic parameters, K m and V max , for the catalytic activity of the nanostructure-bound ALP enzyme were influenced by the particular types of immobilization methods employed. In terms of the overall catalytic performance of the various immobilized ALP systems, a single-stacked LBL assembly approach resulted in the highest level of enzymatic activity per unit mass of nanofiber support. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first report examining the preparation of mechanically shortened, aqueous dispersed electrospun polymer nanofibers for potential application as enzyme scaffolds in chemiluminescent-based assay systems.

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2013

Every day use of appliances relies mostly in lithium-ion batteries to satisfy their energy requir... more Every day use of appliances relies mostly in lithium-ion batteries to satisfy their energy requirements. However, the materials utilized and their lower power densities limit these batteries' desirability. An alternative to batteries is the supercapacitors, which are capable of storing energy in the electrical double layer (EDL) formed between the electrode material and the electrolyte. To reduce the gap in terms on energy and power density between batteries and EDL supercapacitor, pseudocapacitors has been used. In pseudo-capacitors a material that is capable of storing faradaic charge, such as metal oxides and conducting polymers, is deposited in the electrode surface, but its charge / discharge behavior approximate that of the EDL supercapacitor. Therefore, energy density is gained even though the faradaic nature of the process makes its power density decreases. In this paper, we use the conducting polymer, poly-(3,4 propylene-dioxythiophene) for the assembling of a pseudo-capacitor. We present the electrochemical characterization of the devices as a function of the amount of material accumulated in the platinum current collector, in terms of the capacitance, energy, and power density.

Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, 2005

Microfluidic oscillators were obtained from wall attachment microfluidic amplifiers using a feedb... more Microfluidic oscillators were obtained from wall attachment microfluidic amplifiers using a feedback loop from the outputs to the control inputs. These devices can be used as flow meters when the oscillation frequency is proportional to the volumetric flow rate in subsonic and moderately compressible conditions. They can also be used as actuators, for applications involving flow control and/or mixing. The

SnO 2 micro/nano fibers in the rutile structure were synthesized using electrospinning and metall... more SnO 2 micro/nano fibers in the rutile structure were synthesized using electrospinning and metallorganic decomposition techniques. Fibers were electrospun using two different precursor solutions, one based on SnCl 4 and the other on C 22 H 44 O 4 Sn. The fibers were sintered in air for two hours at 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 • C. SEM, AFM, XRD, XPS and Raman microspectrometry were used to characterize the sintered fibers. The results showed that the fibers were composed of SnO2 and that the SnCl4 precursor led to better results in terms of uniformity/continuity of the fibers.

2021 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 1999

Often the designer of small electro-mechanical systems is willing to sacrifice small size and pow... more Often the designer of small electro-mechanical systems is willing to sacrifice small size and power consumption for the sake of low cost, ease of processing and enhanced yield. We have been working on the utilization of Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic tapes (LTCC) for the implementation of intermediate scale (meso-scale) devices with the simultaneously or secondary task of micro-electronic packaging. We have designed and implemented several sensors and actuators having in common the utilization of electro-magnetic forces and interactions as the fundamental working mechanism. For this purpose we have designed and constructed a series of coils utilizing LTCC tapes suitable for multiple sensing and actuating tasks. As sensors, we have implemented a proximity sensor and a non-contact displacement sensor and a differential pressure sensor with a ferrofluidic core. As actuators we have implemented a normally closed valve and a Joule effect heater.

2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2018

A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology, electronics, and systems engin... more A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology, electronics, and systems engineering for the benefit of University of Pennsylvania engineering students, plus teachers and students from three community public schools located in Philadelphia. The course engaged participants in the design and the implementation of an indoor cultivating system using photo-voltaic technology to energize Light Emitting Diodes emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or per... more endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detect... more Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detection in vivo as well as in vitro. Electrochemical detection provides the required cellular level determination of NO among several other techniques. In this work, electrochemical micro-sensors for both types of detection, in vivo and in vitro, were developed, exploring the silicon planar technology, which presents high yield and reliability and also permits batch fabrication. The developed in vitro sensor features eight detection sites (10 µm x 10 µm microelectrodes), for determination of nitric oxide spatial distribution or multi-species analysis. Different electrochemical methods were applied to provide sensor calibration and chemical reproducibility. For in vivo analysis, the designed structures have a needle shape (40 µm thick) and they were silicon micro-machined by using plasma etching or etch stop techniques. Different configurations were designed and implemented, containing a numb...

See next page for additional authors

Meso-scale (approximately 10 µm to 1000 µm) systems have a variety of applications, including use... more Meso-scale (approximately 10 µm to 1000 µm) systems have a variety of applications, including use in medical and biological fields, automotives, and space technology. An electro-kinetic device for manipulating and moving biological micro-particles is the focus of this paper. Rectilinear motion of the particles is caused by using traveling wave dielectrophoresis. The theory behind dielectrophoresis (DC and AC), design, forces, fabrication methods, and results, are discussed. 1.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 1999

Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detect... more Nitric oxide (NO) is known to mediate many beneficial physiology processes, motivating its detection in vivo as well as in vitro. Electrochemical detection provides the required cellular level determination of NO among several other techniques. In this work, electrochemical micro-sensors for both types of detection, in vivo and in vitro, were developed, exploring the silicon planar technology, which presents high yield and reliability and also permits batch fabrication. The developed in vitro sensor features eight detection sites (10 μm × 10 μm microelectrodes), for determination of nitric oxide spatial distribution or multi-species analysis. Different electrochemical methods were applied to provide sensor calibration and chemical reproducibility. For in vivo analysis, the designed structures have a needle shape (40 μm thick) and they were silicon micro-machined by using plasma etching or etch stop techniques. Different configurations were designed and implemented, containing a numb...

2019 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2019

Learning by doing is a bit of a mantra at the Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GG... more Learning by doing is a bit of a mantra at the Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST), an all-girls High School located in the village of Gashora in Rwanda. No doubt theory and formal education are of vital importance in learning science and technology, but building, fabricating, assembling, writing or coding, integrate the best of theoretical and experiential learning. Doing so provides students with the type of satisfaction that rewards them with something of substantial value upon completion of their scholarly effort. Through experience, we have found that this is perhaps one of the most ideal ways to relate to our students. For this exercise in the form of a collaborative effort, formally a service-learning course at University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the two co-authors have been engaged with the GGAST and Penn students during the last five years. Spending a few weeks each summer in residence in Gashora and maintaining year-round collaboration via online meetings and shared resources, we used as a guide and foundation the ideas expressed in a previous publication [1], with our audience was Penn students.

The fabrication and properties of carbon nanofibers are interesting because of the fiber’s expect... more The fabrication and properties of carbon nanofibers are interesting because of the fiber’s expected conductivity properties. If we can successfully control the fabrication and manipulation of carbon nanofibers we should be able to build nanoscale electronics. In this attempt, we have been able to successfully control some of the properties for the fabrication of nanofibers. Carbon nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning a polymer solution, polyacrylonitrile, and then heating it on a vacuum furnace. Thermal analysis helped us determine the minimum heating temperature that the fibers must be exposed to obtain carbon fibers. The relationship between voltage, and the amount of solvent, with the thickness of the fibers was studied using a scanning electron microscope. A strongly non-linear relationship between the voltage and the thickness suggests a sinusoidal relationship. On the other hand, a linear relationship between the amount of solvent and the inverse of the thickness was ob...