Polypropylene-secondary alkane sulfonate micro/nanofibrous fabrics with aligned fibers for enhanced anisotropic wetting performances

Highlight • A micro-nanofibrous fabric with a regulated fiber orientation distribution was designed. • Fiber orientation distributions in the prepared fabric can effectively drive anisotropic water-wetting capacity. • This novel nonwoven fabric has excellent anisotropic water-wetting performance and favorable mechanical properties showing the potential application in skin contactors. Micro/nanofibrous fabrics with anisotropic wetting behaviors for personal hygiene products are highly desired due to their efficient application in liquid management. However, these fabrics remain a challenge to fabricate using scalable and green methods. To address this issues, polypropylene-secondary alkane sulfonate (PP-SAS) fabrics with aligned micro-nanofibers were prepared by blending SAS with PP via a large-scale melt-blowing process. The obtained samples had a fluffy micro-nanofibrous structure (94.9 % porosity and fiber diameter ranged from 0.6 − 5.8 μm) and were hydrophilic (31° water contact angle), which led to excellent water wetting performance. Moreover, the aspect ratio of the water-wetting area significantly increased from 1.5 to 2.41 (an increase of 63.9 %) by aligning the fiber distribution, which was due to the different speeds of the collectors. Additionally, the significant difference between the strengths of the fabrics in the stretching and cross directions also implied their anisotropic performance. The results demonstrated that the PP-SAS micro/nanofibrous fabrics developed in this study would be exceptional candidates in personal hygiene areas where fast water anisotropic transportation, low cost, and high safety are required.