JPH05212094A - Sanitary articles - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain satisfactory antimicrobial and deodorant performances by incorporating the forms consisting metal ions, at least a part of which has an antimicrobial effect, and cation exchange fibers which are substd. with ions having a deodorant effect and have the antimicrobial and deodorant performances, into the articles. CONSTITUTION:The forms consisting of the metal ions, at least a part of which have the antimicrobial effect, and the cation exchange fibers which are substd. with the ions having the deodorant effect and have the antimicrobial and deodorant performances, are incorporated into the sanitary articles, such as diapers, urination training drawers, pads for incontinence, physiological napkins and throw-away underwear. Such forms include paper, felt, woven fabrics, etc. The cation exchange fibers are formed as composite fibers consisting of ion exchange polymers and reinforcing material polymers. Any of copper, silver and zinc is used for the metal ions having the antimicrobial effect. The cation exchange fibers 6 are disposed on the lower layer of an absorbent 5 enclosed by a non- woven fabric 2, by which the required antimicrobial and deodorant performances are obtd. in the case of embodiment of the invention as the physiological napkins.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a diaper that is hygienic and comfortable to use because its constituent material contains a form of ion-exchange fiber having excellent antibacterial and deodorant performance. , Pee training pants, incontinence pads, sanitary napkins, disposable underwear and other sanitary items.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, sanitary-related products have been improved in accordance with the increasing social demand for hygienic and comfortable living. Furthermore, the above-mentioned other hygiene products that often come into direct contact with the skin are not limited to merely having the originally intended function such as water absorption, and are required to have new functions.

One of them is deodorant performance. Various body fluids, blood, discharges, wastes, etc. from humans give off a bad odor while exposed to the air. In other words, the odor is a problem not only during the period of using the sanitary article but also during the period after the replacement and the disposal thereof, and a material for suppressing this is required.

With respect to deodorizing performance, deodorization with activated carbon has been mainly attempted, but since it is not possible to directly attach granular or powder to sanitary goods, a sheet-like material made of activated carbon fiber is used exclusively. However, activated carbon fibers themselves have drawbacks such as low water absorption and unsatisfactory deodorant performance.

Another strongly demanded item is antibacterial performance. This is mainly tried for clothing such as socks, but it should have been given to hygiene products.

[0006] However, if materials having such a function are used as constituent materials to satisfy these requirements, the thickness becomes large, and another demand that a thin and fit material suitable for sanitary goods is preferable is not satisfied. It was in that state.

[0007]

In order to meet the above requirements, a morphological product made of cation-exchange fiber having all the necessary functions of water absorption, deodorant performance, and antibacterial performance is used as a constituent material to make it thin. The object is to provide a sanitary article that is compact and has epoch-making performance.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has "antibacterial deodorant performance in which at least a part thereof is replaced with a metal ion having an antibacterial effect and an ion having a deodorant effect. A hygiene article characterized by including a morphological product made of cation exchange fibers. "

The present invention will be described in detail below.

The cation-exchange fiber of the present invention is usually 0.
1 to 100 μm, preferably 1 to 100 μm, known cation exchange fiber. Specific examples thereof include polystyrene, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacryl, polyamide, polyphenol, polyethylene, base polymers such as cellulose, cation exchange groups such as sulfonic acid group, phosphonic acid group, carboxylic acid group, and aminocarboxylic acid group, There are ion exchange fibers into which various chelate groups such as amidoxime group, polyamine group and dithiocarbamic acid group are introduced. Of these, strong acid cation exchange fibers having sulfonic acid groups introduced are particularly preferable because of their high ion exchange performance and high adsorption performance.

Among the polymers for ion exchange referred to in the present invention, poly (monovinyl aromatic compounds), particularly polystyrene polymers are preferable because they have excellent chemical stability. Specifically, homopolymers and copolymers such as polystyrene, α-methylstyrene, vinyltoluene, halogenated styrene, vinylnaphthalene, and vinylthiophene, blends, and copolymers with other copolymerizable compounds, and these It is a blend with the polymer. Of these, polystyrene is particularly preferable because it is easy and inexpensive to obtain, and has excellent chemical resistance and fiber forming properties. However, due to the lack of toughness of polystyrene, it is almost impossible to obtain a fiber having mechanical performance at a practical level by using polystyrene alone, and it is also difficult to obtain a shaped product. Therefore, a composite fiber made of an ion exchange polymer made of polystyrene and another reinforcing polymer is preferable.

The mixing mode of the ion-exchange polymer and the reinforcing polymer is not particularly limited. For example, a core-sheath type fiber in which the ion-exchange polymer is the main component of the sheath component and the reinforcing polymer is the core component,
Multicore mixed and multicore composite fibers are preferably used.
In particular, the multi-core type composite fiber has sufficient mechanical strength and is excellent in strength stability and the like when various forms are given,
It is preferable because it has a large specific surface area as an ion exchanger.

The reinforcing polymer may be poly-α-olefin, polyamide, polyester, polyacryl, etc., but is not limited thereto. Among them, poly-α-olefins are preferable for the production of cation exchange fibers because they have excellent chemical resistance. Poly-α-
Examples of the olefin include polyethylene, polypropylene, poly-3-methylbutene-1, poly-4-methylpentene-1, and the like, and polyethylene is preferable from the viewpoint of strength and manufacturability.

As a method for producing a strongly acidic cation exchange fiber by introducing a sulfonic acid group into an ion exchange polymer,
Known methods include heat treatment in the presence of paraformaldehyde and concentrated sulfuric acid, or addition of a small amount of catalyst or treatment with gaseous anhydrous sulfuric acid. In the case of sheets such as felt, do it by adding a small amount of reaction catalyst such as silver,
Alternatively, a method of treating with gaseous anhydrous sulfuric acid is preferable.

The amount of cation exchange groups introduced into the polymer is
At least 0.1 milliequivalent / dry weight of polymer /
g or more, preferably 0.5 meq / g or more, and particularly preferably 0.5 to 10 meq / g.

The water content of the fiber is 0.5 to 5.0.
It is preferably in the range of.

Moisture content After immersing Na-type cation exchange fiber in pure water, centrifugal dehydration is carried out for 5 minutes with a household centrifugal dehydrator to remove surface water, and the weight (W) is immediately measured. After absolutely drying, the weight was measured (Wd) and the value was calculated by the following formula.

Water content = (W-Wd) / Wd The cation exchange fiber preferably has a diameter of 15 to 100 μm from the viewpoint of having a high specific surface area. More preferably 2
Most preferably, it is 0 to 70 μm, particularly 30 to 50 μm (dry state).

Although the cut length is arbitrary, it is necessary that the cut length be adapted to each form. For example, if it is too short to make it felt, the fibers will fall off even if it is made felt, and if it is too long, it will be difficult to make it felt, so a range of several mm to several hundred mm is preferable, and more preferably 10 to 100 mm, and further 30 A range of up to 70 mm is preferred. Since the fibers having this length are entangled with each other, the felt can exhibit good performance without dropping off or lowering the strength.

As one of the most important requirements of the present invention, at least a part of the cation exchange fiber must be replaced with a metal ion having an antibacterial action and an ion having a deodorizing action.

As the metal ion having an antibacterial action,
Although it is an ion of one or more metals selected from the group consisting of copper, silver and zinc, the silver form is preferable in terms of effect and safety.

In the present invention, the ionic form of the ion having the deodorizing action is usually the H form, but Fe and M having the deodorizing action are
It may of course be substituted with one or more metal ions selected from the group consisting of n, Cr, Al, Sn and Co.

The capacity of the metal ion having the antibacterial action is 1% or more of the total exchange groups, and if it is too small, the antibacterial function cannot be exerted, and conversely, if it is too large, the deodorizing effect is lost. Is 5 to 90%, especially 20 to 80%
Is preferred.

Since Cu and Zn have both an antibacterial action and a deodorizing action, they may be used alone in the case of these metals.

The metal used can be arbitrarily selected depending on the application.

As the metal compound used for supporting the metal ions on the cation exchange fiber of the present invention, any metal compound soluble in a solvent can be used, but when water is used as a solvent, zinc chloride is used. It is preferable to use metal salts such as copper sulphate and silver nitrate. Examples of the solvent include water, acetone, alcohol, etc., but water is most preferable in consideration of affinity with the cation exchange fiber, solvent resistance, and post-treatment.

The concentration of the metal compound in the solvent varies depending on the amount to be supported on the cation exchange fiber, but is usually 0.0
It is preferably used in the range of 2 to 2M. As a method of supporting, there is, for example, a method of filling a column with cation exchange fibers and passing through a solution in which a metal compound is dissolved, or a method of immersing cation exchange fibers in a solution in which a metal compound is dissolved. Further, the treatment temperature and the treatment time are not particularly limited, but are appropriately selected under the conditions that metal ions can be sufficiently supported and the performance of the cation exchange fiber is not impaired.

Furthermore, as an important requirement of the present invention, a cation exchange fiber imparted with an antibacterial action and a deodorant action is
It is a form product. The morphological product of the present invention refers to a state in which a fiber or a fibrous substance is given a certain shape or shape so that it can be easily handled or used, and a curved surface having a flat or three-dimensional unevenness. A sheet-like material, a three-dimensional molded body or the like can be used. But,
In order to obtain the thin and fit characteristics required for hygiene products, a sheet-like or sheet-like form is preferable, and for example, a paper-like, felt-like, knitted, woven, or sheet-like product is more preferable. .

Any known method may be used to obtain the sheet-like material of the present invention. For example, in the case of felt, the above-mentioned composite fiber is crimped by crimping it.
Then, after cutting, it is processed into a felt by a known method and cross-linked / sulfonated in the gas phase with anhydrous sulfuric acid and imparted with an antibacterial action, or the composite fiber is crimped with a crimper to give paraformaldehyde in the state of crimp tow. After cross-linking and sulfonation with concentrated sulfuric acid, a method of imparting an antibacterial effect by processing into a felt by a known method is available.

The basis weight of these sheets is 10 to 2000.
It is preferably g / m ² . If it is smaller than this, not only is it difficult to manufacture, but also the strength is small and the handleability becomes a problem. On the other hand, if it is too large, the sheet becomes thick, and in this case as well, handleability and pressure loss during use increase, which is not preferable. This is completely unfavorable when the intended purpose is to make a sanitary article. Therefore, 20 to 1000 g /
m ^2, in particular, 50 to 500 g / ^{m 2} is preferred.

The hygiene article of the present invention is formed by laminating the sheet-like article comprising the cation exchange fiber having the antibacterial and deodorant effect obtained above with other materials. Due to its chemical structure, the sheet of the present invention is not preferably placed on the surface that directly contacts the skin, and it is preferably combined with a known material such as a non-woven sheet. This configuration method is arbitrary,
Normally, the surface that comes into direct contact with the skin is preferably a combination of a hydrophobic material with a good touch and a highly water-absorbing material, for example, a low elastic modulus polypropylene nonwoven fabric treated with a surfactant and a pulp material. For the surface, a highly waterproof and breathable material such as a polyethylene-coated polyethylene sheet is preferably used. The hygiene article of the present invention is constituted by sandwiching the above-mentioned sheet-like material having high antibacterial and deodorant performance between them. It is preferable that the sanitary article be as thin as possible, but there is no problem even if other materials are added here depending on the case. Examples thereof include a polymer absorbent sheet and a material that gels water. However, even in this case, the amount of the deodorant / antibacterial sheet material needs to be 10% by weight or more, and if it is less than this, the effect of the present invention cannot be sufficiently exhibited. Therefore, it is preferably 30% by weight or more, and more preferably 5%.
It is preferable to contain 0% by weight or more.

The hygiene article of the present invention is very effective not only in deodorant and antibacterial performance, which is the feature of the present invention, but also in the diaper and pee training very effectively due to the high polymer adsorption capacity and water absorption inherent to the ion exchange fiber. It can be used in a wide range of pants, incontinence pads, sanitary napkins, disposable underwear, and is not limited to these.

Examples will be shown below, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

[0034]

【Example】

Example 1 A multi-core sea-island type composite fiber comprising polystyrene (50 parts) as a sea component and polyethylene (50 parts) as an island component was stretched 1.5 times (16 islands, single yarn fineness 7 denier, total fineness 300,000 denier). ) After that, crimping was applied to the crimper. Then, it was cut into 51 mm, opened with an opener and passed through a roller card to form a web. This web was needle punched to produce a felt of 300 g / m ² .

The felt obtained was cut into 30 cm squares and 1
A set of 0 sheets was set in a stainless steel reactor, sealed, and replaced with dry nitrogen. In this, anhydrous sulfuric acid gas 15
After passing 0 g for 2 minutes, the reaction was terminated by circulating for 10 minutes. After purging the remaining anhydrous sulfuric acid gas with dry nitrogen, the reaction product was taken out, washed with ion-exchanged water until the washing liquid became neutral, and then dried to obtain a felt-like strongly acidic cation-exchange fiber. The felt-like strongly acidic cation exchange fiber thus obtained had an exchange capacity of 2.2 meq / g and a water content of 1.7.

10 g of this felt-like cation exchange fiber was packed in a glass column, and a 0.3 M silver sulfate aqueous solution 10
0 ml was passed. A part of silver-like felt-like cation exchange fiber was taken out, washed with pure water and dried. In this felt-like cation exchange fiber, 65% of the exchange capacity was silver type and the rest was H type.

An antibacterial test was carried out by the following method using the obtained felt-like cation exchange fiber.

Test Method: Measurement of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) (The minimum inhibitory concentration is the minimum concentration of a drug showing growth inhibition by bacteria. The lower the MIC, the higher the antibacterial effect.) Procedure 5 ml of a medium (MUELLER HINTON) was put, and the above-mentioned felt-like cation exchange fiber was added so as to have a predetermined concentration (maximum 2000 ppm). To this, 50 μl of bacteria (Escherichia coli) cultured for 24 hours was added and cultured at 37 ° C. for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the minimum inhibitory concentration was visually determined.

As a result, it was found that the felt-like cation-exchange fiber was capable of inhibiting growth with a minimum growth inhibitory concentration of 31.25 ppm and was extremely small, and was excellent in antibacterial performance.

Example 2, Comparative Example 1 Using the felt-like cation exchange fiber of Example 1, the deodorizing performance for ammonia was examined by the following method. Ammonia gas was adjusted to 600 ppm in a 4 liter flask, and 0.2 g of felt-like cation exchange fiber was charged therein. Measure the concentration for a predetermined time using a gas detector tube,
The deodorizing rate was calculated.

Deodorization rate (%) = (concentration at the time of measurement / initial concentration) × 100 Next, a commercially available activated carbon fiber (manufactured by Toho Rayon Co., Ltd.) and a commercially available ammonia adsorbent (CA104K manufactured by Shigematsu) were used. The same test was performed.

The respective results are summarized in Table 1.

[0043]

[Table 1] As a result, the sheet of the present invention has a very high deodorizing rate as compared with commercially available ammonia adsorbents or activated carbon fibers.
Like the felt-like cation exchange fiber of the present invention, there is no other material that is excellent in both antibacterial action and deodorant action and can be used as it is as a sheet to be incorporated into hygiene products.

Example 3 A sanitary napkin was prepared using the felt-like cation exchange fiber of Example 1. A partially broken sectional view thereof is shown in FIG.

Compared with conventional sanitary napkins, this was in no way inferior to the process of preparation or the feeling of use, and showed extremely high deodorant performance.

From these results, a sanitary article characterized by including a morphological product composed of cation-exchange fiber having antibacterial deodorant performance, at least a part of which is substituted with a metal ion having an antibacterial effect, is very effective. I knew it was.

[0047]

Industrial Applicability The present invention includes a form of a cation-exchange fiber having antibacterial and deodorant properties, at least a part of which is replaced with a metal ion having an antibacterial action, which is a very high-performance hygiene product. It is to provide supplies.

This is a hygienic product that can be incorporated into the conventional process for producing hygiene products, is economical, has a high water absorbency, has no problem in feeling during use, and exhibits high antibacterial and deodorant performance. It is an ideal one that has all the characteristics required for.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a fracture cross-sectional view of a sanitary napkin created in Example 3.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Surface sheet 2: Nonwoven fabric 3: Waterproof silicon coating 4: Cushion material 5: Absorber 6: Felt cation exchange fiber obtained in Example 1

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location B01J 47/12 E 8017-4G D03D 15/00 A 7199-3B

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A hygiene article comprising a morphological product comprising a cation exchange fiber having an antibacterial deodorant performance, at least a part of which is substituted with a metal ion having an antibacterial action and an ion having a deodorant action. 2. The sanitary article according to claim 1, wherein the cation exchange fibers form a composite fiber composed of an ion exchange polymer and a reinforcing polymer. 3. A shaped article is a paper-like, felt-like, knitted,
The sanitary article according to claim 1, which is a woven fabric or a sheet. 4. The sanitary article according to claim 1, wherein the metal ion having an antibacterial action is selected from copper, silver and zinc.