Preparation, structural characteristics, and properties of airlaid nonwoven silk fabric

In this study, short silk yarns were manually airlaid, wetted, and hot-pressed to fabricate new airlaid nonwoven silk fabric. Furthermore, the structural characteristics and properties of the nonwoven fabric were examined. As the length of silk yarn increased, the dispersion of silk yam in the web worsened and the tensile strength of the resultant nonwoven silk fabric decreased. As the press temperature was increased to 200 °C, the tensile strength and elongation of the airlaid nonwoven silk fabric increased. However, it subsequently decreased with further increase in the press temperature, indicating that 200 °C is the optimum press temperature for obtaining the best mechanical properties of the nonwoven silk fabric. An addition of a 2.5% aqueous sericin solution improved the mechanical properties of the nonwoven silk fabric up to a certain point (i.e., 6 mL); however, further addition of the sericin solution was not helpful. This study demonstrated that nonwoven silk fabric can be fabricated using the airlaid method, although the process should be further improved by controlling preparation conditions, such as using short silk fiber rather than short silk yam.