Nanofiber Absorbent Materials Make Paper Diapers More Safe and Environmentally Friendly

[China Packaging Network News] Nowadays, high-polymer absorbent materials are both difficult to degrade and pose safety risks, and new materials are expected to change this situation.

A study published in Applied Materials Today said that a new material made of nanofibers could replace the current harmful materials in diapers and personal hygiene products.

The author of the paper, a researcher from the Indian Institute of Technology, said that the new material has less impact on the environment and is safer for humans than existing materials.

In the past few decades, disposable diapers, sanitary napkins and other personal hygiene products have been made absorbent by the use of super absorbent polymers (SAP). These materials can absorb liquids that are several times their own weight. On average, each diaper can absorb 30 times its own weight of liquid.

However, these materials are not biodegradable. In an ideal situation, a piece of diaper can take 500 years to degrade. Moreover, SAP materials are also associated with health problems, such as toxic shock syndrome, and were therefore banned from making tampon in the 1980s.

According to these researchers, a new material made from electrospun acetic acid nanofibers does not have these drawbacks with SAP. They analyzed the material during the study and found that it can replace SAP materials for the manufacture of feminine hygiene products.

According to Chandra Sharma, the author of the paper, “The use of these products for a long time can lead to toxic shock syndrome and other health problems, so we need to develop a safe material that can replace SAP.”

"Our materials can not only replace the dangerous, non-biodegradable, superabsorbent polymers found in sanitary napkins currently on the market, but they are not inferior to the current materials and even superior in terms of comfort and absorbency."

This nanofiber is a thin, long material made by a technique called electrospinning (technology that uses static electricity to extract fiber from a liquid). Because the surface area of ​​this material is very large compared to its volume, the researchers believe it has better water absorption than existing materials. They compared this material with sanitary napkins on the market and found that the material is indeed more absorbent.

The materials currently used in sanitary napkins on the market are made from flat ribbon fibers, which are about 30 microns in diameter. The diameter of the new nanofiber is only 150 nanometers, 200 times thinner than the former. This new material is more comfortable than the products currently on the market and has fewer residues after use.

New nanofibers (over 90%) are more permeable than traditional materials (80%), which makes it more absorbent. This was confirmed in the experiment. Salt water and synthetic urine were used in the experiment. The water absorbency of this electrospun fiber is much better than that of the products on the market. They also tested two other nanofibers added with SAP and found that their water absorption is not as good as pure nanofibers.

"Our results show that the performance of electrospun fibers is better than that of ordinary products on the market in terms of water absorption and comfort. We think it is an ideal alternative to current hazardous materials," Dr. Sharma said. "This material can be It will make the use and disposal of personal hygiene products safer, and we hope it will play a beneficial role in the global environment and human health."