Melt spun thermoplastic polymers for fast fabrication of non-woven fabrics to be used in multi-layer masks

       Dr. Mehdi Karevan

     mkarevan@cc.iut.ac.ir

our team was successful o design and fabricate a device to melt spin thermoplastic polymers in order to make non-woven fabric of micro-size polymeric fibers as membranes to be used in mask. The Electrospinning process needs solvents and thus incapable of producing a huge range of fibers from specific selected polymers. The innovations involved are a control over the rpm, the motor power and temperature used to melt a broad range of polymers. In a further developed work, the device could be equipped with a single or twin screw extruder to readily deliver polymer melt to be spun. In other aspects of the research, the idea further expanded in the fabrication of micro- and nanocomposites of fibers reinforced with biodegradable polymers or substances recognized to be useful in fighting the Coid-19 or other bacterial or viral contamination. Thus, the research could fall through a multi-disciplinary work of scientists from polymer science, manufacturing and composite engineering and biology to design and develop any application targeted fibers as a replacement for low yield and material limited processes form semi-industrial to industrial large scale version of the set-up. Issues to be resolved may be including the polymer viscosity in particular when mixed with bio- or reinforcing additives, a wide range of process parameters and narrow processing window to obtain a satisfactory fiber with respect to geometry, aspect ratio and expected mechanical performance as well as favorable pore size of the fabric. Other challenges to be addressed are the possibility of destruction of bio-materials since the processes benefits from heating and melting of polymers at rather high temperatures that might be too high for medications to survive. So, the fiber formulation may seek for other alternatives to function same as ordinary medical substances to reduce the function of virus. Our team can contribute in terms of processing and producing neat and reinforced fibers followed by the fabrication of engineered device equipped with a melt mixing method such as extrusion as well as performing important thermal, mechanical, dynamic-mechanical and structural tests and analyses related to polymeric and nanocomposite materials.