Polyimide (PI) Composite Spunlace Nonwovens for Hygiene Material with Excellent Comfort and Antimicrobial Properties

Abstract

Nonwoven fabrics with appropriate hydrophilicity and potent antimicrobial properties hold important promise for hygiene applications. However, existing materials with certain limitations and complex manufacturing steps, along with the unavoidable use of chemicals in the process, are limited to a certain extent in terms of the balance between comfort and antimicrobial properties. In this paper, a polyimide (PI) fiber was reported to be used for the preparation of PI composite nonwoven fabrics (5-P), which can effectively enhance the surface hydrodynamic and antimicrobial properties of the nonwoven by a one-step plasma treatment on one side. After treatment, the one-sided water contact angle (WCA) changed from 121.5° to 68.5°, and the permeation volume from 0.7 to 2.1 g, with a relative increase of 181.9%. Meanwhile, the reverse osmosis amount was only 0.5 g, achieving rapid permeation while keeping a low reverse osmosis amount. The antimicrobial experiment showed that plasma-treated 5-P exhibited 64.3% and 91.6% inhibitory properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. Notably, the production process of antimicrobial 5-P was fast and efficient without the addition of any chemicals. This method has great potential for the industrial preparation of antimicrobial comfort materials on a large scale, which is competitive in the medical, sanitary materials, and personal care fields.