Elastic melt-blown nonwoven fabrication of styrene‐ethylene/butylene‐styrene copolymer and polypropylene blends: a study of morphology and properties

Fabrics produced by the melt-blown nonwoven process have the advantage over competing materials of possessing an ultrafine fibrous and porous structure. However, their brittleness and poor toughness restrict their wider application. There is increasing demand for nonwovens that have high stretchabil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Textile research journal 2022-05, Vol.92 (9-10), p.1620-1630
Main Authors: Chang, Li, Wu, Chuanfen, Lan, Pengfei, Bai, Bing, Jiang, Liang, Chen, Shaojuan, Jerrams, Stephen, Ma, Jianwei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blowing
Copolymers
Elastic recovery
Elasticity
Ethylene
Fabrication
Morphology
Polymer blends
Polypropylene
Rheological properties
Stretchability
Styrene
Styrenes
Textile composites
Thermal properties
Thermodynamic properties
Ultrafines
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Summary:Fabrics produced by the melt-blown nonwoven process have the advantage over competing materials of possessing an ultrafine fibrous and porous structure. However, their brittleness and poor toughness restrict their wider application. There is increasing demand for nonwovens that have high stretchability and elasticity while maintaining a melt-blown structure. In this study, polypropylene (PP) and styrene‐ethylene/butylene‐styrene copolymer (SEBS) were blended at different ratios and subsequently used in the melt-blowing process. The morphology of the blends displayed a co-continuous structure when the ratio of SEBS to PP in blends was similar. Furthermore, it was found that all the blends had good spinnability from the melt-blowing process during rheological and thermal properties tests. All the elastic melt-blown nonwovens fabricated in this research had elongations higher than 400% and elastic recoveries higher than 50%, which was indicative of good elasticity. Meanwhile, the nonwovens maintained fine fiber diameters and good filtration properties, in keeping with traditional melt-blown nonwovens.
ISSN:0040-5175
1746-7748
DOI:10.1177/00405175211066359