دانلود رایگان مقاله جذب بالا نانوالیاف الکتروریسی استات سلولز

Abstract

The feminine sanitary napkin is an important disposable absorbent hygiene product. Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are added in the absorbent core of sanitary napkins in order to improve their absorption capacity. However, they are found to have certain adverse effects on the health of user and also on the environment. Here, we demonstrate the potential use of electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers as a material for absorbent core in feminine sanitary napkins. The analysis in terms of morphology, surface area, porosity, strength, absorption capacity, and percentage residue was done and further compared with some of the known commercially available feminine sanitary napkins. Considering the large surface area and porosity, it is found that the electrospun nanofibers provide a better alternative to achieve even higher absorbency that too without adding SAP. Sanitary napkins without SAP can be a solution for its safe disposal, and therefore, can have global impact in the near future.

4. Conclusions

CA electrospun nanofibers were fabricated with and without encapsulating different amount of SPA into their fiber matrix and we successfully demonstrated their application in feminine hygiene products. Free absorbency, equilibrium absorbency and absorbency under load were carried outin three different mediums (DI water, saline solution, and synthetic urine) for all samples fabricated in this work and results were compared further with a wide variety of commercially available female sanitary napkins used for various stages during female menstrual cycles. In case of DI water, CA nanofibers performed significantly better than two other nanofibers samples encapsulated with SPA and also outperformed most of these commercial samples used for reference. Only in case of free absorbency and equilibrium absorbency in DI water, two commercial samples (S1 and S4) which were primarily based on SAP only, showed more absorbency than CA electrospun nanofibers. However more importantly, only CA electrospun nanofibers showed significantly large absorbency in all conditions as compared to any other fabricated as well as commercial samples in saline solution and synthetic urine solutions. Equally important, residual percentage for all electrospun nanofiber samples (CA, CA5 and CA10) was found to be negligible. Furthermore, mechanical strength and comfort were also found to be more for electrospun CA nanofibers as compared to SPA encapsulated nanofibers and commercial samples. Mostimportantly, we found thatloading of SPA in CA nanofibers not only decreased the surface area and porosity but also restricted SPA to swell resulting in decreased absorption capacity than only CA nanofibers. This clearly suggests that use of SPA (or in general SAPs) can be eliminated if CA nanofibers are used to make the absorbent core in feminine sanitary napkins without compromising with the absorption efficiency. This will not only reduce the health related risks such as toxic shock syndrome linked with the use of SAPs but also make the disposable female sanitary napkin products more environmental friendly, as SAPs are generally non-biodegradable.