Abstrait

Nonwoven materials: Key for infectious disease control

Jinlian HU

Nonwovens as the forefront of personal protective wearable materials, hold significant capability for airborne, waterborn and pathogen-based disease control, which is evidenced by the facemask and protective garments extensively and exceptionally used in this COVID-19. Spunbonding and meltblowing are the key approaches to fabricate nonwoven materials in such applications. We will present on the processing mechanisms, functions and principles of such nonwoven fabrics for combating aerosol and droplets generated bacterial and viral attacks. The filtration efficiency of meltblown nonwoven materials makes them uniquely suitable for infectious disease control. We will also stress the necessity of spunbond materials to enhance the performance and function of the SMS (Spunbond-Meltblown-Spunbond) based composite nonwoven healthcare protective textiles.  Moreover, this presentation will discuss theoretical and experimental strategies of developing personal protective textiles using nonwoven materials for infectious disease control. In addition, we will also demonstrate our work on antimicrobial activity of nonwoven and functional nanofibrous materials, which will make a promising insight for future development of nonwoven protective materials with antiviral and antibacterial function.