Improvement of filtration efficiency by fibre surface nanofibrillation

摘要

High-pressure water jets (hydroentanglement) were used to liberate a layer of nanofibres from the surface of flax fibres without severely damaging the main fibre body. The liberated nanofibres form interconnected networks that link the parent flax fibres together and strengthen the cohesion between the flax fibres, which improved the fabric abrasion resistance more than tenfold. The nanofibre networks also fill the macroscale voids between the parent fibres and between the yarns in the fabric structure, which led to a considerably improved fine particle filtration efficiency of the fabric by a factor of about five.