Effects of Surfactants on Dispersion Behavior of Vectran®in Water(II) -Study on the Manufacture and Properties of Wet-laid Nonwoven Fabrics-

Abstract: This paper aims to manufacture nonwoven fabrics by wet-laid technology using Vectran ® one of the highly favoured high-performace fiber. In previous study, a novel evaluation on fiber dispersion was studied to select optimum surfactant by the need for the control of fiber dispersion in water with reference to wet-laid nonwoven technology. 3 Types of sulfonate anionic surfactants were chosen and added in a stage of agitation to improve dispersion behavior of fibers in water. It was observed that the state of fiber dispersion in water affected various properties of nonwovens, including appearance, physical properties, and mechanical properties. Nonwoven added SDBS was uniform in web structure, thickness and weight. Its average pore was small in size and consisted of fine pores and the value of porosity was high. Further, the difference of tensile value between 2 directions was the least. Consequentially, as the dispersion behavior of fiber increases, nonwoven shows more balanced and uniform physical properties in all directions.