Microfiber is a fiber 100 times thinner than a human hair, and it’s often used in functional products to repel dust mites and particulate matter. These fibers are manufactured through electrospinning and are used in a variety of industries.
Have you heard of dust and mite-free bedding? It’s a new technology that’s gaining traction in the clothing and bedding industry. Anyone who’s ever shopped for bedding or clothing has probably heard of it and its raw material, microfiber.
Microfiber is a fiber that is one-hundredth the thickness of a human hair. When used in a product, these fibers create air pores that are smaller than dust particles or house dust mites and larger than air molecules. This creates a barrier that prevents dust and mites from penetrating while still allowing the fiber to breathe. This is especially helpful for allergy sufferers and people with sensitive skin. It’s often used in functional bedding and clothing because it allows the fiber to breathe like a cloth, while preventing dust and dust mites from taking up residence. But how is this fiber, which is 100 times thinner than a human hair, made?
Conventional yarn is made by filling a perforated cylindrical tube with a liquid polymeric material and applying pressure to pull it out strand by strand, like making noodles. But to make microfibers in the same way, you first need to make tubes with diameters of tens of nanometers, which is technically very difficult. Therefore, microfibers are mainly produced by electrospinning, which uses an electric field rather than mechanical manipulation.
Electrospinning is a method of applying a high voltage to a liquid raw material, causing the molecules that make up the material to repel each other. Matter is made up of many particles called molecules. When you apply a high voltage to a substance, these molecules are affected and become electrified together. It’s like when you go to a noisy place, like a concert or a market, and your voice gets louder. In places with strong electricity, molecules are also electrified, a phenomenon called electrostatics. Molecules are charged with the same charge, and like charges repel each other. That’s why they repel each other. On the other hand, in a liquid state, there are forces that attract molecules to each other. This is due to surface tension, which causes them to clump together to minimize their surface area. When the repulsive force of the electric charge becomes stronger than the surface tension of the molecules, the liquid can no longer hold together and disperses. This is why it is sprayed in the form of liquid droplets. The liquid droplets gradually solidify as they pass through the air. And as they transfer their charge to the air, they gradually lose their charge. The flow of a moderately charged droplet becomes unstable. As a result, the flow becomes spiraling and elongated like a thread. The thread is formed, much like the shape of a ribbon in a ribbon gymnast. This phenomenon continues until the liquid hits a plate with a high voltage at a certain distance from where it was charged.
The process of creating nanofibers by electrospinning has remarkable properties. When spinning threads with a conventional machine, you need to introduce another machine of a different size to make threads of different thicknesses. With electrospinning, this is not necessary at all. In electrospinning, you can control the thickness by adjusting the voltage applied. The higher the voltage, the thinner the thread. This is because the higher the voltage, the more energy is applied. It’s like dropping a fragile object from a higher height so that it breaks into smaller pieces. A liquid that has received a lot of energy from a high voltage will have a stronger charge and will repel more. The stronger repulsion allows the liquid to overcome the forces that hold it together and disperse into smaller droplets.
Another advantage of electrospinning is that it can be used to combine different materials to give them new functions. For example, nanofibers with antimicrobial properties can be made to inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi as well as dust mites. These multifunctional fibers have a wide range of applications, from bedding to medical materials, sports apparel, and industrial filters. They play an important role in improving the quality of our lives.
We use many microfiber products in our daily lives without realizing it. They are used in a wide range of functional products, from dust mite-proof bedding to performance sportswear to dusting towels. All of these functional products started with a simple idea of converting physical force into electrical force. It’s exciting to see how the world will change in the future if more breakthroughs are developed to create thinner and more specialized threads. Advances in science and technology revolutionize even the smallest details of our daily lives, and new materials like microfibers will continue to prove their worth in a variety of fields.
