Electrospun waterproof breathable membrane with a high level of aerosol filtration

In this study, several nanofibrous polyurethane (PU) webs were electrospun (ES) by changing different effective parameters (e.g., polymeric concentration, voltage, feed flow, etc.). The physical-chemical properties of the webs (i.e., average fiber diameters, thickness, areal density, porosity, contact angle, waterproofness, air permeability (AP), water vapor transmittance, and aerosol filtration) were studied based on the standard test methods. A commercially available waterproof breathable (WPB) fabric was used as a reference for benchmarking. The beads-free webs with an average fiber diameter as small as 200 nm were achieved from electrospinning of 10 wt % PU in N,N-dimethylformamide, at feed rate of 0.5 mL/h, applied voltage of 25 kV, and tip-to-collector distance of 15 cm. By optimizing the electrospinning parameters, a web with a high level of waterproofness, high AP, and high water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) was obtained. In addition, the selected ES membrane showed very promising aerosol filtration efficiency with complete removal of particles larger than 0.5 mu m, and 94% reduction in the concentration of smaller particles. We found a linear empirical equation for the estimation of AP and WVTR based on the average pore size diameter, the membrane thickness, and the porosity with very high regression coefficients (R-2>0.97). (C) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

在本研究中，通过改变不同的有效参数（如聚合物浓度、电压、饲料流量等），数个纳米纤维聚氨酯（PU）网是电孢子（ES）。根据标准测试方法研究了网的物理化学性质（即平均纤维直径、厚度、均密度、孔隙度、接触角度、防水性、空气透气性（AP）、水蒸气传输和气溶胶过滤）。一种市售的防水透气（WPB）织物被用作基准的参考。平均纤维直径小至200nm的无珠网，通过在N、N-二甲基酰胺中电平10wt%PU，以0.5 mL/h的馈速，应用电压25千伏，到收集器的距离为15厘米，实现无珠网。通过优化电平参数，获得了具有高防水性、高 AP 和高水蒸气传输速率 （WVTR） 的网。此外，选定的ES膜显示出非常有希望的气溶胶过滤效率，完全去除大于0.5亩的颗粒，并降低94%的小颗粒浓度。我们根据平均孔径直径、膜厚度和具有极高回归系数（R-2>0.97）的孔隙度，发现了AP和WVTR估计的线性实证方程。（C） 2017 威利期刊公司

Published: 2018

Journal ：JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE

Impact Factor：2.668

Paper link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/app.45660