Effects of Tourmaline Particles on Structure and Properties of Polypropylene Filtration Melt-Blown Nonwoven Electrets

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) melt-blown electret webs were melt-spun by melt-blown processing of PP and PP/filler composites. The effect of tourmaline particles on the structure, morphology, and mechanical properties of PP melt-blown webs is reported. The melt-blown webs were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, wide-angle x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and pore size meter. The crystallinity of melt-blown webs with tourmaline particles was more than that of PP alone. SEM micrographs revealed good dispersion of the additive in the fiber webs. The tourmaline particles offered some benefits to the mechanical properties of the melt-blown web. Melt-blown web samples with tourmaline had larger pore size, high surface charge density, higher filtration efficiency and stability of filtration efficiency.

Keywords:

• filtration
• melt-blown nonwovens
• organic-inorganic composite
• polypropylene
• structure and properties

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Plan Projects of Zhejiang Provincial (2011C31011), the Science and Technology Plan Projects of Science Foundation of Zhejiang Provincial (2007C11155), Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory (2006E10009), and Training Foundation of Outstanding Young Talent of “Textile Subject” (Grant No. 2008QN08).