A study on knitting performance and fabric properties of the yarns spun from nano-fibers

Nanofibers have been produced and used in non-woven form (nano-web) for last two decades. These surfaces are generally produced by using electrospinning system. Nano-webs provide high specific surface area, interconnected pore structure and small pore sizes while their low strength limits their application fields and product life. Nano-fibres are currently being used for mainly filtration, battery separator, drug delivery, wound dressing, tissue engineering in the form of non-woven fabric. However they cannot be used in form of woven or knitted fabric as commercial nanofiber yarn spinning systems are not available yet.This study aims to investigate the possibility of use of the yarns spun from PAN nanofibers in knitting. The nanofiber yarn was spun by using a PLC controlled spinning machine. This nanofiber yarn was compared with ring spun yarnproduced by using conventional acrylic staple fibres in terms of their breaking strength, elongation, water absorbency properties and dyeing performance of both type of the yarns were studied. Then fabric samples were knitted by using both of yarns on a laboratory type of circular knitting machine. Knitting performance of the nanofiber yarn were lower than that of the conventional yarn as expected in terms of efficiency and number of yarn breakage during knitting. However, the first example of machine knitted fabric from nanofiber yarn wassuccessfullyobtained by optimizing yarn and fabric tension. Then, fabric samples were tested for their air permeability and aerosol filtration performanceby combining knitted conventional and nanofiber fabrics with a nano-web. The results show that fabrics knitted from nanofiber yarn has higher air permeability and better filtration performance than fabrics knitted from conventional yarn