Hybrid nonwoven mats are made by depositing a slurry of fibers and water onto a fibrous web and applying a binder onto the hybrid nonwoven mat formed therefrom. The fibers are sized and present in an amount such that the binder forms a substantially continuous film on the hybrid nonwoven mat. Gypsum panels may be faced with a hybrid nonwoven mat on one or both surfaces.

A nanofiber for a filter medium is provided that includes fiber-forming ingredients including polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and an emulsifying agent for improving the miscibility of the fiber-forming ingredients. The nanofiber has excellent mechanical strength and chemical resistance and, at the same time, significantly increased hydrophilicity without a separate surface modification/treatment to/on the nanofiber. A filter medium comprising said nanofiber can exhibit improved flux and filtration efficiency and excellent physical properties in a water treatment process in which a pressure equal to or more than a predetermined level is applied and which requires the filter medium to have high mechanical strength and in a water treatment process which requires chemical resistance as the liquid being filtered is strongly acidic or alkaline. Further, since the nanofiber has significantly superior spinnability, the mass productivity of the filter medium is significantly improved, and the unit costs of production can be reduced.

Provided are a filter medium for an air filter capable of having extended life even when composed of embossable material. The filter medium (1) has a tensile elongation of 10% or greater, and includes a main collection layer (30) having a filing rate of 5% to 15%, a thickness of 0.35 mm to 0.70 mm, and a peak in a fiber diameter distribution at less than 1.0 m and a peak at 1.0 m or greater. An average fiber diameter of small fiber diameters of less than 1.0 m is from 0.1 m to less than 0.8 m, and an average fiber diameter of large fiber diameters of 1.0 m or greater is from 1.2 m to less than 3.0 m. A volume ratio of the fibers having the small fiber diameter to the fibers having the large fiber diameter is from 30:70 to 80:20.

A multi-faceted family of non-woven webs that can take the form of a filter media, an adaptable forming process and a machine capable of making the range of media are disclosed. The filter medium can have a first surface and a second surface defining a thickness. The medium can comprise a region having a gradient. Such a gradient is formed by having a medium wherein the concentration of a fiber, a property or other component varies from one surface to the next surface. The gradient region of the media can comprise the entire thickness of the medium or can comprise a region that comprises a portion of the media thickness. The media are characterized by the presence of a continuous change of the fiber concentration or property within the region.

A system that receives nanomaterials, forms nanofibrous materials therefrom, and collects these nanofibrous materials for subsequent applications. The system include a housing coupled to a synthesis chamber within which nanotubes are produced. A spindle may extend from within the housing, across the inlet, and into the chamber for collecting nanotubes and twisting them into a yarn. A body portion may be positioned at an intake end of the spindle. The body portion may include a pathway for imparting a twisting force onto the flow of nanotubes and guide them into the spindle for collection and twisting into the nanofibrous yarn. Methods and apparatuses for forming nanofibrous are also disclosed.

Nanofiber filter media ribbons are flexible elongate strips of polymeric material having a surface on which is formed an array of nanofibers. Ribbons are formable into woven or non-woven mats. The array of nanofibers can be configured to filter a predetermined contaminant from a fluid stream passing through the mats. Filter ribbons are formable by applying a moldable polymer to a first angular location of a rotating cylindrical roll having an array of nanoholes formed in a circumferential surface thereof so that the polymer covers the surface of the roll and infiltrates the nanoholes; cooling the polymer while rotating the polymer-covered roll to a second angular position; and removing the cooled polymer from the roll as an elongate film having an array of nanofibers formed on a surface thereof by the polymer that infiltrated the nanoholes.

Polymer nonwoven nanoweb containing ionic functional group and respiratory mask including the same are provided. The polymeric nonwoven web comprises polymer fibers having a diameter in the nanometer range and having a polymer with an ionic functional group in its main chain or side chain. The ionic functional group may be a sulfonate group, an ammonium group, an azanide group, a phosphonate group, a phosphate group, or a zwitterion group having two of these ionic functional groups linked. The polymeric nonwoven web may further comprise a counter ion having a charge of opposite sign to the charge of the ionic functional group, such as Ag.sup.+ or I.sup..

A nonwoven substrate comprising a polyolefin and an engineering thermoplastic polymer. The engineering thermoplastic polymer may be present in the nonwoven substrate at a level of between about 1% and about 20% by weight of the nonwoven substrate. The layer of fibers is free of a compatibilizer.

The present invention provides compositions comprising aligned fibers of electrospun PNIPAAm and poly (-caprolactone) (PCL) (denoted PNIPAAm/PCL fibers). The PNIPAAm/PCL compositions enable enhanced growth and detachment of intact anisotropic cell sheets. The compositions do not require chemical modification or resource-intensive techniques, thus saving time and expense, and have the potential to generate tissue-specific, aligned cell sheets for transplant studies.

A waved meltblown fiber web of the present invention relates to a fiber web prepared by a meltblown method and is characterized by a preparation method in which a meltblown microfiber comes in contact with collection portions having different surface velocities so as to be collected. The waved meltblown fiber web of the present invention is characterized in that: a part of meltblown microfibers reaches a low velocity collection portion so as to be horizontally layered, thereby forming a horizontal fiber layer (10); another part of the meltblown microfibers reaches a high velocity collection portion of which the surface velocity is greater that of the low velocity collection portion so as to form a serpentine vertical fiber layer (20); and the upper end of the vertical fiber layer (20) becomes entangled so as to form a wave shaped wave layer (30) forming the uppermost portion of the fiber web.