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Abstract
Melt blowing combines extrusion of a polymer melt through orifices and attenuation of the extrudate with hot high-velocity air jets to produce nonwoven fibers in a single step. Due to its simplicity and high-throughput nature, melt blowing produces more than 10% of global nonwovens (â$50 billion market). Semicrystalline thermoplastic feedstock, such as poly(butylene terephthalate), polyethylene, and polypropylene, have dominated the melt blowing industry because of their facile melt processability and thermal/chemical resistance; other amorphous commodity thermoplastics (e.g., styrenics, (meth)acrylates, etc.) are generally not employed because they lack one or both characteristics. Cross-linking commodity polymers could enable them to serve more demanding applications, but cross-linking is not compatible with melt processing, and it must be implemented after fiber formation. Here, cross-linked fibers were fabricated by melt blowing linear anthracene-functionalized acrylic polymers into fibers, which were subsequently cross-linked via anthracene-dimerization triggered by either UV light or sunlight. The resulting fibers possessed nearly 100% gel content because of highly efficient anthracene photodimerization in the solid state. Compared to the linear precursors, the anthracene-dimer cross-linked acrylic fibers exhibited enhanced thermomechanical properties suggesting higher upper service temperatures (∼180 °C), showing promise for replacing traditional thermoplastic-based melt blown nonwovens in certain applications. Additionally, given the dynamic nature of the anthracene-dimer cross-links at elevated temperatures (> ∼180 °C), the resulting cross-linked fibers could be effectively recycled after use, providing new avenues toward sustainable nonwoven products.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 12863-12870 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 13 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 3 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors acknowledge Cummins Filtration for funding. Partial support was provided by the Center for Sustainable Polymers, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Center for Chemical Innovation (CHE-1413862). SEM were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from the National Science Foundation through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF-MRSEC) program.
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge Cummins Filtration for funding. Partial support was provided by the Center for Sustainable Polymers, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Center for Chemical Innovation (CHE-1413862). SEM were carried out in the Characterization Facility University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from the National Science Foundation through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF-MRSEC) program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Chemical Society.
Keywords
- anthracene-dimerization
- cross-linked fibers
- melt blowing
- nonwoven
- reversible bonds
MRSEC Support
- Shared
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
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Dive into the research topics of 'Mechanically Robust and Recyclable Cross-Linked Fibers from Melt Blown Anthracene-Functionalized Commodity Polymers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 3 Finished
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MRSEC IRG-3: Hierarchical Multifunctional Macromolecular Materials
Reineke, T. M., Bates, F. S., Dorfman, K., Dutcher, C. S., Hillmyer, M. A., Lodge, T., Morse, D. C., Siepmann, I., Barreda, L. & Ganewatta, M. S.
11/1/14 → 10/31/20
Project: Research project
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