Performance of Stabilized and Non-Stabilized PVA Nanofiber Textiles Subjected to Tension

Abstract

Nanofiber textiles became indispensible in medicine and many other industries because of their unique properties. Recently, the pioneering works suggested their use also in a building industry in the form of moisture barriers. For a better chemical stability and resistance to air humidity it is suitable to stabilize the spun textiles. Our study is focused on the influence of the physical-chemical stabilization, also called crosslinking, on the mechanical properties of nanofiber textiles in tension, namely stiffness, strength and ductility. During the process of crosslinking the individual fibers bond in nodes, ensuring a better spatial integrity. However, the presented results indicate that the stabilized nanofiber textiles exhibit significantly lower ductility while their ultimate strength is lower only by about 10 %.