Abstract
Nonwovens are widely used as liquid absorbent media. Currently, superabsorbent fibers are used in nonwovens for making them less bulky yet very effective in absorbing liquids. In this work, a series of nonwovens were prepared by random mixing and layer-wise combining of superabsorbent fibers with fibers of different cross-sectional geometries. These nonwovens were studied for their liquid absorption behavior by using gravimetric testing absorption system. It was observed that in case of random mixing, the increase in weight fraction of superabsorbent fibers led to a tremendous increase in liquid sorption capacity and liquid sorption rate. When mixed randomly with superabsorbent fibers, the finer fibers exhibited better sorption characteristics than the coarser fibers, but the non-circular fibers displayed poorer sorption characteristics than the circular ones. In case of layer-wise combining, better sorption characteristics were obtained when the liquid was first challenged by the polypropylene fiber side as compared to that by superabsorbent fiber side. The superabsorbent fibers and the circular polypropylene fibers, when combined layer-wise, resulted in higher sorption capacity but lower sorption rate than those when mixed randomly.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
E. Kissa, Text. Res. J., 66, 660 (1996).
E. Coskuntuna, A. J. Fowler, and S. B. Warner, Text. Res. J., 77, 256 (2007).
P. R. Harnett and P. N. Mehta, Text. Res. J., 54, 471 (1984).
K. Kurematsu and M. Koishi, J. Colloid Interf. Sci., 101, 37 (1984).
L. Zhu, A. Perwulez, M. Lewandowski, and C. Campagne, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 102, 387 (2006).
T. Kawase, S. Sekoguchi, T. Fuj, and M. Minagawa, Text. Res. J., 56, 409 (1986).
P. K. Chatterjee and B. S. Gupta, “Absorbent Technology”, Elsevier, The Netherlands, 2002.
Y. L. Hsieh, Text. Res. J., 65, 299 (1995).
N. Mao, Text. Res. J., 79, 1358 (2009).
A. V. Dedov, Fiber Chem., 41, 248 (2009).
N. Pan and W. Zhong, Text. Prog., 38, 1 (2006).
W. A. Haile and B. M. Phillips, Tappi J., 78, 139 (1995).
G. Callegari, I. Tyomkin, K. G. Kornev, A. V. Neimark, and Y. L. Hsieh, J. Colloid Interf. Sci., 353, 290 (2011).
C. J. Sun, M. C. Suen, H. E. Chen, and C. C. Chen, Text. Res. J., 79, 59 (2009).
S. Debnath and M. Madhusoothanan, J. Ind. Text., 39, 215 (2010).
X. Chen, P. Vromen, M. Lewandowski, A. Perwuelz, and Y. Zhang, Text. Res. J., 79, 1364 (2009).
R. S. Rengasamy, D. Das, and C. Prabhakaran, J. Hazard. Mat., 186, 526 (2011).
B. S. Gupta, Tappi J., 71, 147 (1988).
S. Jaganathan, H. V. Tafreshi, and B. Pourdeyhimi, J. Colloid Interf. Sci., 326, 166 (2008).
B. S. Gupta and C. J. Hong, “Proc. TAPPI Nonwovens Conference”, p.59, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, 1993.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Das, D., Rengasamy, R.S. & Kumar, M. Liquid sorption behavior of superabsorbent fiber based nonwoven media. Fibers Polym 14, 1165–1171 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-013-1165-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-013-1165-5