Nanofibres have been the subject of recent intensive research due to their unique properties, especially their large surface-area-to-volume ratio, which is about one thousand times higher than that of a human hair. They also have several other remarkable characteristics, such as flexibility in surface functionality, superior mechanical properties such as stiffness and tensile strength, their capacity to be formed into a variety of shapes, and the fact that they can be produced from a wide range of organic and inorganic polymers. These outstanding properties make polymer nanofibres the optimal candidates for providing significant improvement in current technology and for opening the door to novel applications in many research areas. Electrospinning is a straightforward and inexpensive process that produces continuous nanofibres from submicron diameters down to nanometre diameters. Many researchers have successfully electrospun a variety of polymer solutions into nanofibres. However, electrospinning any polymer solution directly is not straightforward or simple because of the number of parameters that influence the electrospinning process. The characteristics of the electrospun jet and the morphology of the resultant fibres are highly dependent on the properties of the polymer solution. In addition, what are favourable processing conditions for one polymer solution may not be suitable for another solution. A literature review revealed that there is no clear understanding of the behaviour of the electrospun jet and the way in which fibre morphology varies with variations in influential parameters. In addition, reported results contain significant inconsistencies and very little research has examined the effects of electrical parameters such as the electric field, the polarity of the electrode, and the conductivity and permittivity of the solution. Furthermore, no research has been conducted with respect to optimizing the electrospinning process. In this thesis, a comprehensive study was carried out by giving a special attention to the effects of electric field that have not been thoroughly investigated in the past. The electric field between the needle tip and the collector plate was altered by varying the applied voltage, distance between the needle tip and the collector plate, the inner diameter of the needle, and polarity of the voltage. Based on the experimental work, it was found that the behavior of Taylor cone, the length of the straight jet portion, and whipping jet region is highly influenced by the distribution of the electric field between the needle tip and the collector plate. Based on the stability of the Taylor cone, it was concluded that the stable operating region of the electrospun jet is a very narrow region and it is between 0.9 – 1.1kV/mm for the range of experiments that were carried out in this study. The length of the straight jet portion of the electrospun jet shows a linear relationship to the applied electric field at the tip of the fluid droplet and the whipping jet region is influenced by both the electric field at the tip of the fluid droplet and the distance between the needle and the collector plate. A confirmation were made that there must be enough distance between the needle tip and the collector plate (>200mm) to operate over the complete range of voltages without affecting drying of nanofibres. It was also concluded that the morphology and diameter of the collected nanofibres depend significantly on both the length of the straight jet portion and size of the whipping region. The effects of polarity of the applied voltage on the electrospinning process and nanofibre morphology were investigated using the positive, negative, and AC voltages. However, it was found that the electrospinning can not be achieved with the application of 60Hz AC voltage. It was observed that the behavior of Taylor cone, the straight jet portion, and the whipping jet region depend on the polarity of the applied voltage. During the study, it was accomplished that the reason for this different behavior is the disparity of ionization in the polymer solution with the application of positive and negative high voltages. In this thesis, the effects of multi-needle arrangements on the electrospinning process and fibre morphology were also explained. Finite element method (FEM) simulation results revealed that the local electric field strength around each needle tip weakens significantly in the case of multi-needle schemes due to the mutual influence of other needles in the arrangement compared to the single-needle system. The spacing between the needles was varied, and the effects of the needle spacing were examined. The experimental and simulation results were concealed the correlation between the degree of field distortion and the variation in the measured vertical angle of the straight jet portion for different needle spacing. It was concluded that the local field deterioration at the needle tips in multi-needle schemes degrades the electrospinning process significantly and produces considerable variation in the fibre morphology even though the influence of needle spacing on the average jet current and the fibre diameter are not very significant. In this work, the effects of conductivity and ionic carriers on the process of electrospinning and hence on the morphology of nanofibres were studied using polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) aqueous solutions. Different salts including lithium chloride (LiCl), sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium fluoride (NaF), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), potassium chloride (KCl), and cesium chloride (CsCl) were added in different concentrations to the polymer solutions for introducing different ionic carriers into the solution. The results showed that the average fiber diameter decreases with increase in the conductivity of the solution. In addition, it was discovered that the formation of Taylor cone highly depends on the conductivity in the polymer solution. Formation of multi-jets at the fluid droplet when the conductivity of the polymer solution is increased during the electrospinning was also observed. These behaviors were completely explained using the distribution of the surface charge around the electrospun jet and the variation in the tangential electric field along the surface of the fluid droplet. The stretching of the polymer jet can be related to the amount of ionic carries and the size and mobility of positive and negative ions. The increasing amount of ionic carriers and smaller size positive ions enhance the stretching of the electrospun jet. In contrast, the lesser diameter negative ions decrease the stretching of the electrospun jet. The morphology of electrospun nanofibres can also be varied by altering the type of ionic carriers. A charge modifier, which is a container that is used to hold a solvent surrounding the needle tip during the electrospinning, was introduced to facilitate the electrospinning of insulating and high conductivity polymer solutions. The co-axial flow of the filled solvent on the outer surface of the polymer solution helps to induce enough surface charges during electrospinning and it also keeps the electric field tangential to the fluid surface during the process. Therefore, the introduction of charge modifier greatly enhanced the electrospinning behavior of highly insulating and conductive polymer solutions and liquids. The developed charge modifier method was verified by using sodium alginate which is a biopolymer that cannot electrospin alone due to its high electrical conductivity and silicone rubber which is an insulating liquid polymer at room temperature. One of the most commonly used theoretical model of the electrospinning process was modified to incorporate the non-uniform characteristics of the electric field at the tip of the needle. The non-uniform electric field between the needle tip (spinneret) and the collector plate was calculated based on the charge simulation technique (CST). It gives a better representation of the true electrospinning environment compared to the uniform field calculation in the existing model. In addition, a localized approximation was used to calculate the bending electric force acting on the electrospinning jet segments. It was also introduced a constant velocity to initiate the electrospinning jet during simulation. The incorporated modifications gave better results that closely match with the real electrospinning jet. The modified electrospinning model was used to understand the effects of parameters on the electrospinning process and fibre morphology.

Nanofibres have been the subject of recent intensive research due to their unique properties, especially their large surface-area-to-volume ratio, which is about one thousand times higher than that of a human hair. They also have several other remarkable characteristics, such as flexibility in surface functionality, superior mechanical properties such as stiffness and tensile strength, their capacity to be formed into a variety of shapes, and the fact that they can be produced from a wide range of organic and inorganic polymers. These outstanding properties make polymer nanofibres the optimal candidates for providing significant improvement in current technology and for opening the door to novel applications in many research areas. Electrospinning is a straightforward and inexpensive process that produces continuous nanofibres from submicron diameters down to nanometre diameters. Many researchers have successfully electrospun a variety of polymer solutions into nanofibres. However, electrospinning any polymer solution directly is not straightforward or simple because of the number of parameters that influence the electrospinning process. The characteristics of the electrospun jet and the morphology of the resultant fibres are highly dependent on the properties of the polymer solution. In addition, what are favourable processing conditions for one polymer solution may not be suitable for another solution. A literature review revealed that there is no clear understanding of the behaviour of the electrospun jet and the way in which fibre morphology varies with variations in influential parameters. In addition, reported results contain significant inconsistencies and very little research has examined the effects of electrical parameters such as the electric field, the polarity of the electrode, and the conductivity and permittivity of the solution. Furthermore, no research has been conducted with respect to optimizing the electrospinning process. In this thesis, a comprehensive study was carried out by giving a special attention to the effects of electric field that have not been thoroughly investigated in the past. The electric field between the needle tip and the collector plate was altered by varying the applied voltage, distance between the needle tip and the collector plate, the inner diameter of the needle, and polarity of the voltage. Based on the experimental work, it was found that the behavior of Taylor cone, the length of the straight jet portion, and whipping jet region is highly influenced by the distribution of the electric field between the needle tip and the collector plate. Based on the stability of the Taylor cone, it was concluded that the stable operating region of the electrospun jet is a very narrow region and it is between 0.9 – 1.1kV/mm for the range of experiments that were carried out in this study. The length of the straight jet portion of the electrospun jet shows a linear relationship to the applied electric field at the tip of the fluid droplet and the whipping jet region is influenced by both the electric field at the tip of the fluid droplet and the distance between the needle and the collector plate. A confirmation were made that there must be enough distance between the needle tip and the collector plate (>200mm) to operate over the complete range of voltages without affecting drying of nanofibres. It was also concluded that the morphology and diameter of the collected nanofibres depend significantly on both the length of the straight jet portion and size of the whipping region. The effects of polarity of the applied voltage on the electrospinning process and nanofibre morphology were investigated using the positive, negative, and AC voltages. However, it was found that the electrospinning can not be achieved with the application of 60Hz AC voltage. It was observed that the behavior of Taylor cone, the straight jet portion, and the whipping jet region depend on the polarity of the applied voltage. During the study, it was accomplished that the reason for this different behavior is the disparity of ionization in the polymer solution with the application of positive and negative high voltages. In this thesis, the effects of multi-needle arrangements on the electrospinning process and fibre morphology were also explained. Finite element method (FEM) simulation results revealed that the local electric field strength around each needle tip weakens significantly in the case of multi-needle schemes due to the mutual influence of other needles in the arrangement compared to the single-needle system. The spacing between the needles was varied, and the effects of the needle spacing were examined. The experimental and simulation results were concealed the correlation between the degree of field distortion and the variation in the measured vertical angle of the straight jet portion for different needle spacing. It was concluded that the local field deterioration at the needle tips in multi-needle schemes degrades the electrospinning process significantly and produces considerable variation in the fibre morphology even though the influence of needle spacing on the average jet current and the fibre diameter are not very significant. In this work, the effects of conductivity and ionic carriers on the process of electrospinning and hence on the morphology of nanofibres were studied using polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) aqueous solutions. Different salts including lithium chloride (LiCl), sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium fluoride (NaF), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), potassium chloride (KCl), and cesium chloride (CsCl) were added in different concentrations to the polymer solutions for introducing different ionic carriers into the solution. The results showed that the average fiber diameter decreases with increase in the conductivity of the solution. In addition, it was discovered that the formation of Taylor cone highly depends on the conductivity in the polymer solution. Formation of multi-jets at the fluid droplet when the conductivity of the polymer solution is increased during the electrospinning was also observed. These behaviors were completely explained using the distribution of the surface charge around the electrospun jet and the variation in the tangential electric field along the surface of the fluid droplet. The stretching of the polymer jet can be related to the amount of ionic carries and the size and mobility of positive and negative ions. The increasing amount of ionic carriers and smaller size positive ions enhance the stretching of the electrospun jet. In contrast, the lesser diameter negative ions decrease the stretching of the electrospun jet. The morphology of electrospun nanofibres can also be varied by altering the type of ionic carriers. A charge modifier, which is a container that is used to hold a solvent surrounding the needle tip during the electrospinning, was introduced to facilitate the electrospinning of insulating and high conductivity polymer solutions. The co-axial flow of the filled solvent on the outer surface of the polymer solution helps to induce enough surface charges during electrospinning and it also keeps the electric field tangential to the fluid surface during the process. Therefore, the introduction of charge modifier greatly enhanced the electrospinning behavior of highly insulating and conductive polymer solutions and liquids. The developed charge modifier method was verified by using sodium alginate which is a biopolymer that cannot electrospin alone due to its high electrical conductivity and silicone rubber which is an insulating liquid polymer at room temperature. One of the most commonly used theoretical model of the electrospinning process was modified to incorporate the non-uniform characteristics of the electric field at the tip of the needle. The non-uniform electric field between the needle tip (spinneret) and the collector plate was calculated based on the charge simulation technique (CST). It gives a better representation of the true electrospinning environment compared to the uniform field calculation in the existing model. In addition, a localized approximation was used to calculate the bending electric force acting on the electrospinning jet segments. It was also introduced a constant velocity to initiate the electrospinning jet during simulation. The incorporated modifications gave better results that closely match with the real electrospinning jet. The modified electrospinning model was used to understand the effects of parameters on the electrospinning process and fibre morphology.

La fabrication de membranes nanofibreuses par un procédé d’électrospinning plus respectueux de l’environnement, ou plus « vert », est de nos jours un défi. L’électrospinning est un procédé qui permet, généralement à partir d’une solution de polymère, d’obtenir des membranes non-tissées dont le diamètre des fibres est compris entre 50 nm et quelques micromètres. Deux stratégies nouvelles ont été développées pour répondre à ce besoin croissant. La première consiste à fabriquer des membranes à partir de polymères bio- sourcés tandis que la deuxième vise à employer des solvants exclusivement aqueux. Cette deuxième stratégie permet de s’affranchir des vapeurs de solvants souvent toxiques utilisés au cours du procédé. Dans ce cadre, des membranes ont été fabriquées à partir de suspensions aqueuses de polymères non-hydrosolubles, d’une part, et à partir d’acide tannique, une molécule non-polymérique bio-sourcée en exploitant les interactions supramoléculaires. Ces stratégies plus « vertes » rendent moins dangereuse et moins couteuse l’utilisation d’émetteurs multi-jets et permettent, de ce fait, une meilleure industrialisation du procédé d’électrospinning. Les membranes développées ont été fabriquées pour des applications de microfiltration liquide. En effet, les membranes d’électrospinning peuvent allier des tailles de pores submicroniques à des porosités supérieures à 80% contrairement aux membranes de microfiltration commerciales (porosité < 40%). La fabrication de membranes de filtration par un procédé d’électrospinning multi-jet « vert » permet ainsi d’accroitre les débits de production et de filtration tout en respectant davantage l’environnement. / The fabrication of nanofibrous mats by an environmentally friendly, or in other words by a “green”, electrospinning process is nowadays a challenge. Electrospinning is a process allowing the fabrication, generally from a polymer solution, of nonwoven mats composed of fibers having diameters ranging between 50 nm and a few micrometers. Two new strategies have been developed to answer such a growing need. The first one consists in electrospinning bio-sourced polymers while the second one is based on the electrospinning of aqueous solutions exclusively. This second strategy allows avoiding toxic vapors coming from the evaporation of toxic solvents often used during the process. In this context, mats were electrospun from solutions composed of aqueous suspensions of water insoluble polymers, on one hand, and composed of tannic acid, a non-polymeric bio-based molecule exploiting supramolecular interactions. These new environmentally friendly strategies turn the electrospinning process in a less dangerous and less expensive one, and, as a result, ease the use of multi-jet setups and enable a better industrialization of the electrospinning process. Membranes have been developed for liquid microfiltration applications. As a matter of fact, electrospinning membranes can combine submicron pore sizes with porosities greater than 80% unlike commercial microfiltration membranes (porosity < 40%). The fabrication of liquid filtration membranes by a multi-jet "green" electrospinning process, thus, makes it possible to increase the production rates of electrospinning mats and filtration rates while respecting the environment.

Nous avons développé une décharge transportée fonctionnant à la pression atmosphérique. Le générateur fonctionne en mode alternative avec une fréquence d’excitation variant entre 1 et 10kHz. Grace à une forme d'onde en dents de scie, il a été possible de transporter la décharge à l’intérieur d’un tube sur une longueur qui pourrait atteindre 200cm. L’influence des différents paramètres tels que la forme de la tension appliquée, le diamètre du tube et la configuration d’électrode, sur la formation de la décharge a été étudié. La nature des espèces excitées à l’intérieur et extérieur du tube a été identifié par Spectroscopie Optique d’Emission. La propagation de la décharge dans un système multi jets et un jet unique de la même section a été comparée. L’influence de ces deux types de jets transportés exposés aux bactéries de type E. coli a été étudiée et les résultats montrent que la zone d’inactivation des bactéries augmente significativement.De plus le potentiel de cette décharge pour le traitement de surface et dépôt des couches minces de polymère a été investigué aussi bien à l’extérieur qu’à l’intérieur du tube capillaire pour la première fois. Nous avons employé deux types de précurseurs: le TEOS, et le DEGME. Sous certaines conditions, les couches de type PEG présentant des propriétés antiadhésives des cellules ont été déposées sur le PS. Afin d’étudier les modifications de surface créées sur les polymères par cette décharge. Les résultats obtenus par des méthodes d’analyse différentes montrent qu’à part l’oxydation de la surface du UHMWPE nous pouvons déceler une insaturation de la surface qui est souvent accompagnée de la réticulation de la surface. / We have developed a transporting discharge source that can operate at atmospheric pressure. The device is working by using AC power supply with a frequency ranging between 1 to 10 kHz. The sawtooth waveform enabled the transport of discharge as long as 200 cm. The different parameters that affect the plasma delivery such as voltage of the waveforms, tube diameter and electrode configuration were investigated. The electronically excited and active species inside and outside of the plasma channel were characterized by Optical Emission Spectroscopy. The electrical and temporal characteristics of the plasma, discharge power and charges on the sample were investigated. The propagation of transporting discharge with multi-jets and a single jet with the same cross-sectional area has been compared. Also, E.coli bacteria were exposed to the transporting discharge multijets and single jet for different time durations.The potential of the transported discharge for the surface treatment of polymers and deposition of thin films has been investigated. Two different precursors namely TEOS, and DEGME have been employed for the elaboration of thin organic coatings by introducing the precursors inside and at the exit of the capillary tube. The PEG like coatings obtained in the case of DEGME on PolyStyrene films showed for particular operating conditions nonadhesive coatings with respect to Ovary Carcinoma Celles. In order to study the surface modification effects of the discharge, the Ultra High Molecular Weight PolyEthylene was used as the substrate in the two different configurations. The results show that besides the oxydation of the UHMWPE, crosslinking takes place.

Le Modèle Standard de la physique des particules décrit trois des quatre interactions fondamentales et toutes ses prédictions ont été confirmées expérimentalement. Cependant, il reste encore des questions auxquelles le Modèle Standard ne peut répondre. Plusieurs pistes théoriques sont explorées et certaines prédisent de nouvelles particules se désintégrant en paire de quarks top-antitop qui pourraient être observé par le détecteur ATLAS auprès du collisionneur LHC.À partir de 2026, le LHC redémarrera après avoir fait l'objet d'une importante phase d'amélioration afin d'augmenter sa luminosité. C'est dans ce contexte que s'inscrivent les études réalisées sur FATALIC, une puce qui a été proposée pour le remplacement de l'électronique frontale du calorimètre hadronique à tuiles d'ATLAS. Les études ont montré que FATALIC est capable de reconstruire les paramètres d'un signal analogique en utilisant trois canaux de gain et un changement de gain dynamique. Les simulations ont démontré que les performances attendues de la voie rapide de FATALIC entraient dans les spécifications demandées.Ensuite, a été présentée une recherche de nouvelles résonances se désintégrant en paire de quarks top-antitop, utilisant 36,1 fb-1 de données issues des collisions proton-proton à 13 TeV au LHC pendant les années 2015 et 2016. Cette recherche s'est concentrée sur le canal de désintégration semi-leptonique de la paire top-antitop, où l'état final possède une signature comprenant exactement un lepton, des jets hadroniques et de l'énergie transverse manquante. L'estimation du bruit de fond multi-jets a été présentée en détail. Une recherche dans le spectre de masse invariante de la paire top-antitop a été effectuée pour les deux topologies résolue et boostée et la compatibilité des données par rapport aux prédictions du Modèle Standard a été testée. Aucune déviation significative par rapport aux prédictions du Modèle Standard n'a été trouvée et des limites sur les sections efficaces de production de signaux issus des modèles considérés furent mises.Les difficultés rencontrées lors de l'estimation des bruits de fond et du pré-traitement des incertitudes systématiques pour l'analyse à 36,1 fb-1 ont motivé la recherche d'une nouvelle méthode pour l'estimation du bruit de fond globale. L'algorithme Décomposition Fonctionnelle (FD) est une nouvelle méthode permettant de rechercher de nouvelles particules dans un spectre de masse invariante, en séparant la contribution du bruit de fond de celles des contributions résonantes. FD a été testé dans le but de vérifier ses performances sur des pseudo-données des analyses top-antitop et « 4t BSM ». Dans un premier temps, des tests ont été menés sur la propension de FD à créer de faux signaux dans les spectres de masses invariantes. La première version s'est montrée sensible à ce problème. FD a ensuite été amélioré pour réduire la sensibilité à la création de faux signal. Enfin, des études d'injections de signal ont été réalisées et FD a montré des difficultés à modéliser la contribution du signal et à la séparer du bruit de fond pour des largeurs de signal supérieures à 3%. / The Standard Model of particle physics describes three of the four fundamental interactions and all of its predictions have been experimentally confirmed. However, there are still questions that the Standard Model cannot answer. Several theoretical models are being explored and some predict new resonances that would decay into a top-antitop quarks pair that could be observed by the ATLAS detector at the LHC collider.In 2026, the LHC will restart after a significant improvement phase to increase its luminosity. It's in this context that the studies on FATALIC, a chip that has been proposed for the replacement of the front-end electronics of the ATLAS hadronic tile calorimeter, were achieved. The studies showed that FATALIC was able to reconstruct the parameters of an analog signal using three gain channels and a dynamic gain switch. The simulations showed that the expected performance of FATALIC's fast channel was within the required specifications.Then, a search for new particles decaying into a top-antitop quarks pair was presented, using 36.1 fb-1 data from the proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV of the LHC for the years 2015 and 2016. This search concentrate on the semi-leptonic decay channel of the top-antitop quarks pair, where the final state has a signature with exactly one lepton, hadronic jets and missing transverse energy. The estimate of the multi-jets background noise was presented. A search in the top-antitop invariant mass spectrum was performed in the two topology resolved and boosted and the compatibility of the data with respect to the Standard Model predictions was tested. No significant deviation from the Standard Model's predictions was found and limits on benchmark models signal cross sections were set.The difficulties encountered in estimating the background noises and on the profiling of the systematic uncertainties for the 36.1 fb-1 analysis has motivated the search for a new method to perform the global background estimate. The Functional Decomposition (FD) algorithm is a new method to search for new particles in an invariant mass spectrum, separating the contribution of the background noise to those of the resonant contributions. FD has been tested to verify its performance on pseudo-data from the top-antitop and « 4t BSM » analyses. First, tests were conducted to check if FD was creating spurious signal. The first version suffered of this problem and FD was then improved to reduce the amount of spurious signal. Finally, signal injection studies were carried out and FD showed difficulties to model the signal's contribution and to separate it from the background noise for signal with widths greater than 3%.