Non-woven fabrics bonded with pH sensitive film-forming silane crosslinked acrylate interpolymers
AssigneeJohnson & Johnson
InventorRobert J. Gander
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Abstract
A pH-sensitive polymeric composition is used as a binder for other materials, such as webs of non-woven water-dispersible fibers, to produce products which are completely disposable at selected non-neutral pH's. The polymeric composition, which has film-forming characteristics and water-barrier properties at substantially neutral pH's and yet is solubilizable and thus disposable at substantially non-neutral pH's, comprises a silane crosslinked interpolymer of an alkyl acrylate and a monomer interpolymerizable therewith such as, in the preferred alkaline labile embodiment, acrylic acid. The silane crosslinking monomer is preferably 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-propyl methacrylate or 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-propyl acrylate.
Claims7
A non-woven fabric dispersible in aqueous media having a pH substantially outside the range of about 4.5 to about 8.5 comprising a web of overlapping, intersecting fibers bonded together with a film-forming polymeric composition having water-barrier properties at neutral pH's in the range of between about 4.5 and about 8.5 and solubilizable at a pH substantially outside said neutral pH range, said composition comprising a silane-crosslinked interpolymer of about 0.5 to 5 parts by weight of a first monomer selected from the group consisting of the alkyl acrylates wherein the alkyl group has from one to eight carbon atoms, and about 1 part by weight of a second monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, fumaric acid, maleic acid, maleic anhydride, itaconic acid, dimethylaminoethyl acrylate, dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, diethylaminoethyl acrylate, diethylaminoethyl methacrylate, tert.-butylaminoethyl acrylate and tert.-butylaminoethyl methacrylate, and about 0.9 to 1.5% by weight, based on the combined weight of said first and second monomers, of a crosslinking monomer selected from the group consisting of the silane monomers having the structural formula:
- ##STR2## wherein:
- R is selected from the group consisting of CH.sub.3 --, CH.sub.3 CH.sub.2 --, CH.sub.3 O-- and CH.sub.3 CH.sub.2 O--;
- R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each selected from the group consisting of CH.sub.3 -- and CH.sub.3 CH.sub.2 --;
- R.sub.3 is selected from the group consisting of H--, CH.sub.3 -- and CH.sub.3 CH.sub.2 --;
- and n is 0 or a positive integer not greater than 8.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.