STRONG NANOFIBERS AND NANOFIBER WEBS VIA SPUNBOND PROCESS

摘要

The purpose of this research was to determine the feasibility of using of islands-in-the-sea (I/S) bicomponent fibers in the spunbond process to produce relatively high strength micro- and nanofibers. The relationships between the number of islands, polymer composition, and the fiber and fabrics properties were also investigated. Nylon 6 (N6) and poly (lactic) acid (PLA) were used as the islands and sea polymers, respectively. Nanofibers were obtained by dissolving PLA from the final spunbond fabric. The smallest filament diameter, measuring 360 nm, was achieved after the removal of 75% of PLA from the bicomponent fibers containing 360 islands. Hydroentangling was found to be a viable method of bonding of the I/S structures and the bonded structures were able to withstand post-processing steps required for dissolving of the sea from the resulting nonwovens. Hydroentanged micro- and nanofiber based nonwovens demonstrated high tensile and tear properties, which were insensitive to the N6 fiber size and its mechanical properties. Such insensitivity suggested that bonding efficiency as well as web uniformity were dominant factors influencing the fabric performance. Overall, our study demonstrated that the I/S configuration is a promising technique for the production of high strength nonwovens comprised of micro- and nanofibers.