JPH06248548A - Biodegradable nonwoven fabric material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an antimicrobial biodegradable nonwoven fabric material by binding fibers consisting mainly of biodegradable fibers with water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol binder fibers containing an antimicrobial agent or bactericidal agent. CONSTITUTION:Contradictory problems comprising the exhibition of the antimicrobial property of a biodegradable nonwoven fabric material and its biodegradability deteriorated by the presence of an antimicrobial agent are solved by adding the antimicrobial agent to binder fibers and using water-soluble fibers as the binder fibers. The nonwoven fabric material is antimicrobial on its employment, but when the nonwoven fabric material is dispersed in water after the employment, the antimicrobial component is immediately removed, whereby the main fibers can be degraded with microorganisms in water and/or in soil. Thus, the degradable nonwoven fabric material enables to improve the function of this kind of disposable nonwoven fabric materials, waste treatments capable of returning the nonwoven fabric material to the natural field, and the recycling of the nonwoven fabric material in a wide meaning.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disposable non-woven fabric material comprising biodegradable fibers, which exhibits antibacterial properties and / or bactericidal properties until the time of use, and is dispersed as a constituent fiber by being dispersed with water after use. The present invention relates to an antibacterial biodegradable non-woven fabric material in which degradable fibers are decomposed by microorganisms and can be returned to a natural environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Plastics have been originally improved in characteristics during use and production in order to improve and overcome various drawbacks of natural materials. Nowadays, they enrich people's lives. It has become an indispensable part of everyday life. However, these plastic products cannot be returned to nature without being decomposed by bacteria and microorganisms like natural products.
Until now, it must be said that the treatment after its use, especially its adverse effect on the earth, has been neglected. And because the products have become indispensable in daily life, the huge increase in disposable products and the increase in new material products can be incinerated or landfilled.
We have come to the point of seriously affecting the global environment. Under such circumstances, in recent years, a polymer material that is decomposed by bacteria and microorganisms in a natural environment and naturally returns, that is, a biodegradable plastic has been rapidly attracting attention.

The present invention utilizes a fiber made of this biodegradable plastic, or a biodegradable recycled fiber,
Uses natural fibers and has antibacterial properties until use
The present invention also provides a disposable / biodegradable non-woven fabric material that exhibits bactericidal properties and, after use, is naturally decomposed by the biodegradable fiber's original bacteria and microorganisms. The term "antibacterial and / or bactericidal" is simply referred to as "antibacterial" in the following in order to avoid complication of the description, and also in the title column of the invention and the claims section. Abbreviated as "antibacterial".

For example, diapers, diaper covers, sanitary items, medical gloves, surgical gowns, sheets, pillow covers, sleepwear made of paper and non-woven fabrics, and wipes made of paper and webs for babies or sick people, for cleaning toilet bowls. For disposable products such as tissues and cloths, it is effective from the viewpoint of waste treatment and wide-ranging recycling to make them disintegrate or compost in soil or water as quickly as possible. In addition, it has an antibacterial agent and / or a bactericidal agent (also in this case, abbreviated as "antibacterial agent" hereinafter) that repels, prevents or kills reproduction and reproduction of microorganisms. If the antibacterial property is exhibited, it is effective for protecting the health of the user from bacteria and the like. However, if an attempt is made to use a material for such an antibacterial property, that is, a biodegradable fiber capable of naturally returning paper, web, non-woven fabric, etc., the antibacterial agent applied to the fiber is To exist,
For example, even if it is buried in the soil, bacteria and microorganisms around the fiber do not propagate or die, and the decomposition of the fiber by the bacteria and microorganisms cannot be promoted.

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention The present invention has a so-called contradictory problem that biodegradation does not proceed due to the presence of an antibacterial agent and the exertion of antibacterial properties of the material for biodegradable nonwoven fabrics on the premise of antibacterial properties. It is a solution.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been achieved by the following problems. That is, the present invention is an "antibacterial biodegradable non-woven fabric material obtained by bonding main fibers made of biodegradable fibers with a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol-based binder fiber to which an antibacterial agent and / or a bactericide is added." Is.

In the present invention, in order to make the non-woven fabric material antibacterial when used, the antibacterial agent is not applied to the whole non-woven material, but the main fiber of the constituent material is imparted with the antibacterial agent. If the antibacterial agent is added to the binder fiber of the constituent material and the water-soluble binder fiber is used, the material for the non-woven fabric is treated with the antibacterial agent applied to the non-woven fabric material until the non-woven fabric material is used. The whole is antibacterial, and after use, the non-woven fabric material can be exposed to water to remove the binder fiber kneaded with the antibacterial agent, whereby the biodegradable fiber which is the main fiber is in water or / and It is possible to restart the decomposition action of bacteria and microorganisms in the soil, so that it can be returned to the natural environment, and the binder fiber is also dissolved and the antibacterial agent is separated. It shall be subject to microbial degradation by. The term "water" as used herein means water in soil, water in a sewage treatment plant containing a large amount of activated sludge, or water in a river or sea containing various microorganisms.

In the present invention, the main fiber is not only natural pulp such as hemp, wool and cotton that is decomposed by bacteria and microorganisms, regenerated fiber such as rayon,
Fibers made of biodegradable plastics developed in recent years can be used. Examples thereof include a product name “Biopol” (manufactured by ICI) made of a copolymer composition of polyhydroxybutyrate and valylate, a product name “Placcel” (manufactured by Daicel Chemical) made of polycaprolactone, and an aliphatic polyester. Product name "Bionore" (manufactured by Showa High Polymer), product name "Matterby" (manufactured by Innovamont) composed of starch and modified polyvinyl alcohol composition, and the like. Of course, these main fibers are not limited to one type, and two or more types may be mixed.

Regarding the water-soluble polyvinyl binder fiber, first, it is necessary to meet the requirement from the waste aspect of the nonwoven fabric product made of it. In hospitals, it is usual to sterilize dirty uniforms by washing in an autoclave, so once this autoclave is premised, high temperature and high pressure are applied there, so the melting temperature of the binder fiber is not a problem. However, for example, the diapers and sanitary products, wipers for babies or sick people, tissues for cleaning toilet bowls, etc. are either incinerated after use, or discarded into the sewer through a flush toilet. At this time, the used product needs to be easily dispersed by a water flow treatment in the flush toilet, and conversely, it is not possible to cause clogging in the sewer pipe only when the dispersion can be performed easily. This product can be abandoned in the sewer system. Therefore, in order to enhance the dispersion under washing with water, the water-soluble binder fiber needs to be one that is easily dissolved in water, and the dissolution temperature in water is 10 to 40 ° C.
Is preferred. If it is necessary to sterilize or sterilize it before discarding it, it can be disposed of after treatment with hot water or a germicide.

Such a polyvinyl alcohol binder fiber is, for example, usually wet spun in an aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol having a saponification degree of 90 to 97.5 mol% using a salt bath of Glauber's salt as a coagulating bath by a conventional method and then 105 to 140. ℃
It is dried by heating at 160-250 ° C, and then cut into a suitable fiber length, and the melting temperature is 10-40.
It will be ℃. Since the binder fiber is subjected to the heat treatment as described above, it is not dissolved in the paper making process, for example. The solubility temperature of the binder fiber in the paper obtained by re-adding water solubility by heating and drying after paper making reaches a low dissolution temperature corresponding to the dissolution temperature after drying after spinning.

The essential point of the present invention is to apply the antibacterial agent only to the binder fiber side. For this purpose, the antibacterial agent may be kneaded in advance into polyvinyl alcohol before spinning to form a fiber, or the antibacterial agent may be attached after the fiberization. As a method for attaching the antibacterial agent to the surface in the latter post-treatment, the antibacterial agent can be directly coated or can be microencapsulated and adhered. However, in the post-treatment method, the antibacterial agent is liable to peel off and fall off. Therefore, the former kneading method is preferable in this respect.

The antibacterial agent used is not particularly limited,
Pesticides and antibacterial agents such as quaternary ammonium salts, 2- (4-thiazolyl) benzimidazole, N (fluordichloromethylthio) -phthalimide, Preventol A-4 (Bayer) can be used, and silver, copper, Particles of at least one metal selected from aluminum, zinc, iron, tin, lead, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, thallium, etc. or their compound particles can also be used, but it is important to select them in consideration of safety. Is. In order to maintain the antibacterial effect efficiently and for a long time, it is preferable to use two or more kinds of the metals which have different ionization tendency from each other. Further, it is preferable to use the metal ion-supporting fine particles in which the metal is ion-exchanged with ceramic fine particles such as zeolite, alumina, cordierite, and silica gel, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

In order to knead these metal fine particles or the metal ion-supported ceramic fine particles into a polymer, it is preferable to use those crushed to have an average particle size of about 0.05 to 5 μm. . Those having a large particle size are not preferable because they tend to cause filter clogging and fluff breakage during spinning, and more yarn breakage during drawing. Therefore, it is more preferable to use particles having an average particle diameter of 3 μm or less.

The composition of the main fiber and the water-soluble binder fiber prepared as described above into a paper or paper-like material is as follows. Short fiber obtained by cutting the main fiber into an appropriate length and binder fiber are mixed and dispersed in water. Paper in which main fibers are bound with binder fibers by making paper by a normal wet papermaking method and drying,
It can be a paper-like material. The amount of binder fiber is 10
It is suitable to use about 50%. Further, the structure of the web, the non-woven fabric, the main staple fiber and the binder fiber are mixed in the same manner, and made into a parallel web, a cross web, or a random web by an appropriate web bar,
Further, in some cases, the web may be subjected to a treatment such as needle punching or a water needle to entangle the fibers, and water may be sprayed onto the web to be dried to obtain a web or a nonwoven fabric in which binder fibers are bonded to main fibers. By the way, when the wet paper is dried or the web and the nonwoven fabric are dried, in order to prevent the melting temperature of the binder fiber from being raised, as described in the method for producing the binder fiber, it is usually 105 to 1
It is preferable to dry at about 40 ° C.

The drawings are for further explaining the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the material for a biodegradable nonwoven fabric of the present invention, in which the biodegradable main fiber 1 is kneaded with a biodegradable antibacterial agent. The schematic diagram of an example of the web couple | bonded with the water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol type | system | group binder fiber 2 which was included is shown. See also FIG.
The non-woven fabric material of the present invention is treated with water, the binder fibers 2 are dissolved and separated from the main fibers 1, and the main fibers 1 are separated into sewers, sewage treatment facilities, sludge land, or landfill. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a process in which the main fiber 1 is buried in soil such as the ground where an antibacterial agent does not exist, so that the main fiber 1 starts to be decomposed by microorganisms.

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples. <Production of main fiber> Using succinic acid as an acid component and butanediol 1.4 as a glycol component, esterification and polycondensation are performed by a conventional method to synthesize a polyester, and hexamethylene diisocyanate is further reacted with the polyester. Thus, a high molecular weight aliphatic polyester having a number average molecular weight of 48,700 and a melting point of about 120 ° C. was obtained. This polyester was supplied to a screw type extruder, and melt spinning was performed at a nozzle hole diameter of 0.25 mm, a number of holes of 50, a spinning temperature of 180 ° C., and a winding speed of 600 m / min. Next, this spun yarn was drawn 3.5 times at a drawing temperature of 60 ° C. to obtain a fineness of 1.
A polyester fiber having 8d, a strength of 3.5 g / d and an elongation of 18% was obtained.

<< Production of Binder Fiber >> Saponification degree 96.
Polyvinyl alcohol powder having 0 mol% and an average degree of polymerization of 1700 was used, and a silver ion-supporting zeolite (average particle size 0.3 μ) in which silver was supported on zeolite solid particles by ion exchange was mixed to obtain a polyvinyl alcohol concentration of 1
A 6% aqueous solution was made. This was spun into a saturated Glauber's salt bath at 40 ° C. from a spinneret having a hole diameter of 0.08 mm and a number of holes of 6000,
The obtained yarn was drafted 2.0 times in a saturated sodium sulfate bath at 90 ° C., dried at 120 ° C., and then heat-treated at 180 ° C. to obtain a single fiber fineness of 1.0 denier. Obtained.
This was cut into a fiber length of 3 mm to obtain a silver-zeolite-containing polyvinyl alcohol-based fibrous binder. The binder fiber has a melting temperature of 60 ° C., and can be subjected to papermaking without melting during subsequent production of paper by ordinary wet papermaking.

Example 1 The polyester fiber obtained above was cut to a fiber length of 5 mm and used as the first main fiber. As the second main fiber, 500 ml of Canadian freeness softwood pulp (NBKP) was used. 50% of the first main fiber, 35% of the second main fiber
%, 15% of the above binder fiber is mixed to make paper stock,
After making a paper by a conventional method using a wet papermaking machine equipped with a short wire type wire, it was dried by a Yankee dryer at 110 ° C. to obtain a paper-like material having a basis weight of 40 g / m ² . The melting temperature of the binder fiber in water in this paper-like material was 15 ° C,
Since it was easily dissolved in normal water temperature, the paper-like material made of it was easily dispersed in normal water.

The above-mentioned main fibers dispersed in this flush toilet were collected and embedded in activated sludge, and the state of decomposition in two months in summer was observed. The degradation status of this after the date was fully satisfactory (no adverse effects of antibacterial agents were observed). That is, this paper-like material is antibacterial when used, and moreover, it can be put into a flush toilet bowl after use to be easily dispersed, and the dispersion is produced by microorganisms in a sewage treatment plant or the like. It can be decomposed satisfactorily.

Example 2 The polyester fiber obtained above was cut to a fiber length of 35 mm and used as the first main fiber. Further, as the second main fiber, 710 ml of Canadian freeness softwood pulp (NBKP) was used. 35% of the first main fiber, 50% of the second main fiber
%, 15% of the above binder fiber was mixed to form a card web by a card machine, and steam was sprayed on the card web to dry it at 110 ° C., and the basis weight was 60 g / m ² , and the thickness was 1.0.
A mm non-woven fabric bonded with the above polyvinyl alcohol fibers was obtained. The binder fiber in this non-woven fabric had a dissolution temperature of 15 ° C. in water, which was easily dissolved in normal water temperature, so that the non-woven fabric was easily dispersed in normal water.

As an experiment, this non-woven fabric was put into a flush toilet bowl, and the dispersion in the flush toilet bowl was observed. The dispersion was very good. The main fibers dispersed in this flush toilet were collected, embedded in activated sludge, and the state of decomposition during the two months of summer was observed. The decomposition state of this product after the deadline was sufficiently satisfactory, showing no adverse effects of the antibacterial agent. That is, this non-woven fabric is also antibacterial when used, and it can be easily dispersed by throwing it into the flush toilet after use, and the dispersion is biodegradable by microorganisms in sewage treatment plants. It can be done well. That is, this nonwoven fabric is suitable, for example, as a material for diapers for babies or sick people.

[0022]

As described above, the present invention has an antibacterial effect and an antibacterial agent of a biodegradable non-woven fabric material that is encountered when an attempt is made to construct a disposable biodegradable non-woven fabric material with antibacterial properties. Therefore, biodegradation does not progress, the contradictory problem is solved by kneading an antibacterial agent into the binder fiber, and making the binder fiber water-soluble, and the function of this kind of disposable nonwoven fabric material is improved. It is possible to process waste and process it in a natural way and to recycle it in a broad sense. Since the nonwoven material of the present invention has antibacterial properties and can be washed and discarded, it can be used as a diaper or diaper cover for infants, the elderly, the sick, etc., as a sanitary product, and for various purposes of cleaning, Cleaning tissue, gloves, medical gloves, surgical clothes, sheets, pillow covers,
As a material for sleepwear, seeding sheet for agriculture,
It can also be used for things such as paper pots that become loose in shape after use, such as rainwater. Alternatively, it can be used for disposable tableware, sheets, cigarette filters, etc.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a nonwoven fabric material of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a process of disassembling the nonwoven fabric material of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Biodegradable main fiber 2 Biodegradable water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol binder fiber

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Office reference number FI Technical display location D04H 1/04 A 7199-3B 1/54 D 7199-3B D06M 23/02 7108-4C A61F 13 / 18 B 7199-3B D06M 21/00 C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A material for biodegradable non-woven fabric, comprising main fibers made of biodegradable fibers bonded with a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol-based binder fiber to which an antibacterial agent and / or a bactericide is added.