An investigation of fiber splitting of bicomponent meltblown/microfiber nonwovens by water treatment

Meltblowing is a most versatile and cost‐effective process commercially available worldwide to produce microfiber nonwovens directly from thermoplastic resins. The new bicomponent (bico) meltblown technology opens a great possibility to make even finer microfibers by subsequently fiber splitting. Water‐dispersive Eastman AQ polymers were initially introduced to the meltblown process to make the mono‐ and bicomponent meltblown webs at Textiles and Nonwovens Development Center (TANDEC), University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The postwater treatment was performed on the fabrics, which resulted in the dispersive part (AQ polymer) being dispersed in water and only the other part remaining in the bico web. A process–structure–property study is provided toward the research reported in this article. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 1218–1226, 2004