Articles containing nanofibers for use as barriers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9464369-B2
Application number	US-10955705-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2005
Priority date	Apr 19, 2004
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

The present invention is directed to articles comprising nanofibers. Preferred articles include diapers, training pants, adult incontinence pads, catamenials products such as feminine care pads and pantiliners, tampons, personal cleansing articles, personal care articles, and personal care wipes including baby wipes, facial wipes, body wipes, and feminine wipes. The nanofiber webs can be used as a barrier, wipe, absorbent material, and other uses.
The nanofibers, having a diameter of less than 1 micron, must comprise a significant number of the fibers in at least one nanofiber layer of the nonwoven web. The nonwoven web may have a hydrohead to basis weight ratio of greater than about 10 mbar/gsm. The nanofibers may be produced from a melt film fibrillation process.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A nonwoven web comprising:
a first layer of spunbond fibers;
a second layer of spunbond fibers; and
at least one nanofiber layer disposed between said first and second layers of spunbond fibers, said nanofiber layer comprising at least 50% nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 500-900 nanometers, said nanofiber layer having a basis weight of less than about 25 gsm, a mean pore diameter of less than about 15 microns, and a coefficient of variation in at least one of the following of less than 20%: pore diameter, basis weight, air permeability, and/or opacity; wherein the nonwoven web has a hydrohead greater than 10 mbar and air permeability greater than 1 m/min, wherein a product of the hydrohead and the air permeability divided by the basis weight is greater than about 500 mbar*meter per minute per gsm.

2. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the product of the hydrohead and the air permeability divided by the basis weight is greater than about 750 mbar*meter per minute per gsm.

3. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a basis weight of from about 0.5 gsm to about 3 gsm.

4. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a basis weight of from about 3 gsm to about 15 gsm.

5. A nonwoven web comprising:
a first layer of spunbond fibers;
a second layer of spunbond fibers; and
at least one nanofiber layer disposed between said first and second layers of spunbond fibers, said nanofiber layer having at least 50% nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 500 to 900 nanometers, a basis weight of less than about 25 gsm, and a mean pore diameter of less than about 15 microns, wherein the nonwoven web has a hydrohead to nanofiber layer basis weight ratio of at least 10 mbar/gsm and an air permeability of at least 15 meter per minute wherein a product of hydrohead and air permeability divided by basis weight is at least 500 mbar*meter per minute per gsm.

6. The nonwoven web of claim 5 wherein the nonwoven web has a hydrohead to nanofiber layer basis weight ratio of at least 20 mbar/gsm and an air permeability of at least 75 meters per minute.

7. The nonwoven web of claim 5 wherein the basis weight of the nonwoven web is from about 0.5 gsm to about 15 gsm.

8. The nonwoven web of claim 5 wherein the product of hydrohead and air permeability is at least 750 mbar*meter per minute.

9. An article comprising a nonwoven web of claim 1 .

10. The article of claim 9 wherein the article is selected from the group consisting of diapers, training pants, adult incontinence pads, catamenials products such as feminine care pads and pantiliners, tampons, personal cleansing articles, personal care articles, and personal care wipes such as baby wipes, facial wipes, body wipes and feminine wipes, and combinations thereof.

11. The article of claim 10 wherein the nonwoven web is a liquid barrier layer.

12. The article of claim 11 wherein the barrier layer is disposed between an absorbent core and an outer layer contacting a garment or is disposed between an absorbent core and an inner layer contacting a user's skin.

13. The article of claim 11 wherein the nonwoven web is surface coated to improve barrier performance.

14. An article comprising a nonwoven web of claim 5 wherein the article is selected from the group consisting of diapers, training pants, adult incontinence pads, catamenials products such as feminine care pads and pantiliners, tampons, personal cleansing articles, personal care articles, and personal care wipes such as baby wipes, facial wipes, body wipes and feminine wipes, and combinations thereof.

15. The article of claim 14 wherein the nonwoven web is a liquid barrier layer.

16. The article of claim 15 wherein the barrier layer is disposed between an absorbent core and an outer layer contacting a garment or is disposed between an absorbent core and an inner layer contacting a user's skin.

17. A nonwoven web comprising:
a first layer of spunbond fibers;
a second layer of spunbond fibers; and
at least one nanofiber layer disposed between said first and second layers of spunbond fibers, said nanofiber layer having at least 50% nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 500 to 900 nanometers, a basis weight of from about 0.1 gsm to about 15 gsm, and a mean pore diameter of less than 15 microns, wherein the nonwoven web has a hydrohead to the nanofiber layer basis weight ratio of greater than about 10 mbar/gsm, an air permeability of at least 15 meter per minute and a product of hydrohead and air permeability divided by basis weight of at least 500 mbar*meter per minute per gsm.

18. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a basis weight of from about 0.5 gsm to about 1.5 gsm.

19. The nonwoven web of claim 1 comprising larger fibers having diameters ranging from above 1 micron to about 10 microns.

20. The nonwoven web of claim 19 wherein the nanofibers and larger fibers are in a single layer.

21. The nonwoven web of claim 19 wherein the nanofibers and larger fibers are in different layers.

22. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a coefficient of variation in pore diameter of less than 20%.

23. A nonwoven web comprising:
a first layer of spunbond fibers;
a second layer of spunbond fibers; and
at least one nanofiber layer disposed between said first and second layers of spunbond fibers, said nanofiber layer comprising at least 90% nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 500-900 nanometers and larger fibers having diameters ranging from above 1 micron to about 10 microns, said layer having a basis weight of less than about 10 gsm, a coefficient of variation in basis weight of less than 20%, and a mean pore diameter of less than about 15 microns.

24. A nonwoven web comprising at least one nanofiber layer having at least 50% nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 500-900 nanometers, a basis weight of less than about 25 gsm, and a mean pore diameter of less than about 15 microns, wherein the nonwoven web has a hydrohead and air permeability wherein a product of the hydrohead and the air permeability divided by the basis weight is greater than about 500 mbar*meter per minute per gsm, and where the at least one nanofiber layer is adjacent at least one large fiber diameter layer with the large fiber diameters between 12 and 20 micron.

25. The nonwoven web of claim 24 where the sum of the basis weights of one or more adjacent large fiber diameter layer is from 5 to 20 gsm.

26. The nonwoven web of claim 24 where the sum of the basis weights of one or more adjacent large fiber diameter layer is from 5 to 15 gsm.

27. The nonwoven web of claim 24 wherein the nanofiber layer has a basis weight of from about 0.5 gsm to about 1.5 gsm.

28. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a coefficient of variation in basis weight of less than 20%.

29. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a coefficient of variation in air permeability of less than 20%.

30. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer has a coefficient of variation in opacity of less than 20%.

31. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer comprises a melt fibrillated layer.

32. The nonwoven web of claim 1 wherein the nanofiber layer comprises a melt film fibrillated la

Assignees

• Isele Olaf Erik Alexander
• Chhabra Rajeev
• Xu Han
• Mirle Srinivas Krishnaswany
• Bond Eric Bryan
• Procter & Gamble

Inventors

• Isele Olaf Erik Alexander
• Chhabra Rajeev
• Xu Han
• Mirle Srinivas Krishnaswany
• Bond Eric Bryan

Classifications

• B01D2239/025

  comprising nanofibres · CPC title

• Y10T442/60

  Nonwoven fabric [i.e., nonwoven strand or fiber material] · CPC title

• A61F2013/51452

  being nonwovens · CPC title

• A61F2013/15406

  Basis weight · CPC title

• A61F13/51401

  characterised by the material · CPC title