Provided is an artificial leather that has texture (stiffness), a luxuriant feel (dispersibility of fiber bundles), and a slick feel (resin clusters of appropriate size) and can be used suitably as a seat cover material or interior design material for interiors, cars, airplanes, railway cars, etc. and garment accessory products. This artificial leather comprises a fiber sheet and a polyurethane resin and is characterized in that: the fiber sheet comprises at least a fiber layer (A) that forms a first outer surface of the artificial leather; the k-nearest neighbor distance proportion (k=9, radius r=20 μm) between cross-sections of single fibers configuring the fiber layer (A) in a thickness direction cross-section of the artificial leather is 10-80%; the cross-sectional polyurethane resin area ratio in a thickness direction cross-section of the fiber layer (A) is 10-30%; and the standard deviation of the cross-sectional polyurethane resin area ratio in a thickness direction cross-section of the fiber layer (A) is 25% or less.

Provided is a production method in which a sheet-like article that has high moist heat resistance and has good surface quality and texture can be produced, regardless of the coagulation technique used for the polyurethane, by an environmentally friendly manufacturing process that is designed to cause reaction of a crosslinking agent while maintaining the texture possessed by the material before crosslinking. The production method for sheet-like articles is a sheet-like article production method characterized by impregnating a fibrous base material with water dispersed polyurethane as a binder, coagulating it to provide a sheet, adding a solution or dispersion liquid of a crosslinking agent to the sheet, and then heating it at a temperature of 100° C. or more and 200° C. or less.

A process for the production of coated textiles comprises at least the steps of a) bringing a textile substrate into contact with an aqueous dispersion A comprising at least one salt and at least one modified cellulose, b) bringing a textile substrate into contact with an aqueous dispersion B comprising at least one polymer selected from the group consisting of polyurethane, polyacrylate and polybutadiene and c) precipitation of the polyurethane in or on the textile substrate. The salt of dispersion A is an organic onium salt of one or more elements of the fifth main group of the periodic table of the elements. The invention further relates to a coated textile obtainable by a process according to the invention and to the use of organic onium salts of one or more elements of the fifth main group of the periodic table of the elements for the production of coated textiles.

A method for manufacturing a high density artificial leather, may include (a) manufacturing a long fiber-type non-woven fabric having an areal weight of 400 to 500 g/m.sup.2 and an apparent density of 0.3 to 0.6 g/cm.sup.3 by self-twist spinning a sea component polymer fiber and an island component polymer fiber; (b) shrinking the long fiber-type non-woven fabric with hot water; (c) eluting the sea component polymer fiber from the shrunken non-woven fabric by immersing the shrunken non-woven fabric in an aqueous alkaline solution; and (d) impregnating a polymer elastomer in a non-woven fabric from which the sea component polymer fiber is eluted, to manufacture a long fiber-type fine yarn non-woven fabric.

Disclosed is a sheet-like material which is produced by an environmentally friendly procedure and has an elegant appearance with piloerection, good wear resistance and good texture. Specifically disclosed is a sheet-like material containing a water-dispersed polyurethane within a fibrous base that contains extra-fine fibers having an average single fiber diameter of 0.3-7 um. The inside of the water-dispersed polyurethane is provided with pores each having a diameter of 10-200 um. Also specifically disclosed is a method for producing a sheet-like material by applying a polyurethane liquid to a fibrous base, wherein the polyurethane liquid is a water-dispersed polyurethane liquid that contains a foaming agent and a dry film of the polyurethane that constitutes the polyurethane liquid has a 100% modulus of 3-8 MPa.

A leather-like material is disclosed composed of chitosan, bulk reinforcement agents such as microfibrillated cellulose, pigments, plasticizers, crosslinkers, and organic acids with properties making it suitable as a leather substitute material.