Absorbency of synthetic urine by cotton nonwoven fabric
Rupali Dhiman, R. Chattopadhyay
Abstract
Cotton fibres have been used in many absorbent products. A porous structure is most conducive to absorbing liquid. More is the porosity better would be the absorbent capacity. However, a porous fibrous structure is structurally fragile and can easily collapse during the absorbing process leading to changes in porosity, nature of pore structure and pore size distribution. The structural rigidity is influenced by fibre fineness and degree of mechanical bonding between the fibres. The absorbency characteristics and structural collapsing possibility of nonwoven fabrics made from very coarse and fine cotton fibres have been investigated using synthetic urine. It has been shown that the absorption capacity rises phenomenally, once the porosity crosses the value of 0.97. All nonwoven have been found to collapse laterally during absorption process, leading to lowering of absorption capacity especially in nonwovens consisting of fine fibres (3 micronaire). Nonwovens made from coarser fibres (6 micronaire) showed both higher absorption capacity and rate in comparison to those made from finer fibres (3 micronaire).