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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
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
Fingerprint
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. (Coordinator), Bates, F. S. (Senior Investigator), Dorfman, K. (Senior Investigator), Dutcher, C. S. (Senior Investigator), Hillmyer, M. A. (Senior Investigator), Lodge, T. P. (Senior Investigator), Morse, D. C. (Senior Investigator), Siepmann, I. (Senior Investigator), Barreda, L. (Researcher) & Ganewatta, M. S. (Researcher)
11/1/14 → 10/31/20
Project: Research project
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University of Minnesota MRSEC (DMR-1420013)
Lodge, T. P. (PI)
11/1/14 → 10/31/20
Project: Research project