Nonwoven Materials Produced by Melt Electrospinning of Polypropylene Filled with Calcium Carbonate

Abstract

Nowadays, polypropylene-based nonwovens are used in many areas, from filtration to medicine. One of the methods for obtaining such materials is melt electrospinning. In some cases, it is especially interesting to produce composite fibers with a high degree of filling. In this work, the influence of the filling degree of isotactic polypropylene with calcium carbonate on the structure and properties of nonwoven materials obtained by melt electrospinning was studied. It was shown that electrospinning is possible, even at a filler content of 50%, while the average diameter of the fibers increases with the growth in the content of calcium carbonate. The addition of sodium stearate significantly reduces the diameter of the fibers (from 10–65 to 2–10 microns) due to reducing viscosity and increasing the electrical conductivity of the melt. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis and IR spectroscopy reveal that the initial polymer and composites are characterized by the presence of stable α-form crystals, while nonwovens show a predominance of smectic mesophase. The addition of calcium carbonate leads to an increase in the hydrophobicity of the composite films, the addition of sodium stearate results in a decrease of hydrophobicity, while all nonwovens demonstrate superhydrophobic properties.

Morphology, structure and properties of nonwoven materials obtained by melt electrospinning of polypropylene–polystyrene blends

“…Thus, results obtained by WAXD are in good agreement with the previously reported data: [36] only mesophase is observed at a fiber diameter of up to 8-9 μm, and if the fiber diameter is higher, then crystallites of a more equilibrium α-phase are also formed due to lower cooling speed.…”

“…Sodium stearate (SS) was produced by Panreac and used (at concentration 3 wt%) to improve viscosity and electrical conductivity of the melts as described previously. [20,36,37] All reagents were used as received without any further purification. Blends for electrospinning were prepared by mixing of components in a twin-screw extruder HAAKE PolyLab OS at 190 C, and then regranulated.…”

“…Thus, the addition of sodium stearate leads to a decrease in the viscosity and an increase in the specific electrical conductivity of polypropylene-polystyrene blends, which is in good agreement with the previously reported data for individual polymers. [36,37] As a consequence, it can be expected that an addition of sodium stearate allows to obtain finer fibers than by electrospinning of pure polymers.…”

Characterization and evaluation of the leachability of bottom ash from a mobile emergency incinerator of COVID-19 medical waste: A case study in Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan, China

“…The incinerated medical waste mainly contained disposable medical items such as protective suits, face masks, and glasses, which were made of polypropylene (PP) ( Gao et al, 2012 ; Pechyen and Ummartyotin, 2016 ; Yang et al, 2007 ). During the production of PP, fillers, e.g., CaCO 3 and SiO 2, are usually added to enhance the stiffness and mechanical properties ( Malakhov et al, 2020 ). After incineration, PP was burned into ash, but CaCO 3 and SiO 2 fillers remained in the ash.…”

Fabrication of Air Conditioning Antimicrobial Filter for Electrically Powered Port Tractors via Electrospinning Coating

“…Figure 6 shows the XRD patterns of untreated raw non-woven fabrics and their coating membranes. For M1, the non-woven fibers have four typical peaks: the peaks at 2θ = 21.7°, 18.5°, 16.8°, and 14.07° contribute to the (111), ( 130), (040), and (110) planes [25]. On the other hand, the peak positions observed in PVA and PVA composite fibers are approximately those observed in non-woven fabrics.…”