Phenyl-methyl phosphazene derivatives for preparation and modification of hydrophobic properties of polymeric nonwoven textiles

This paper focuses on the preparation of two types of hydrophobic nanolayers using electrospinning technology. The first synthetic approach consists in direct fiberizing of polymeric phenyl-methyl-polyphosphazene Ph-Me(p) with the aim to preparing nanolayers that have significant hydrophobicity and thermal stability. The preparation of Ph-Me(p) is a multi-step reaction which produces a relatively low amount of the product. The second area of our interest was the creation of nanofibers formed from a mixture of some commercially available organic polymers and a cyclo-phosphazene derivative. In this case, tri(phenyl)-trimethyl-cyclo-triphosphazene, Ph-Me(t), whose synthesis is less complicated than its polymeric form, was used as an additive. The influence of the Ph-Me(t) additive in the nanofibers on the affinity to water was compared with the affinity of nanolayers made from a pure commercial polymer, i.e. without any phosphazene additive. It was also shown that the hydrophobic properties of fibers formed from Ph-Me(p) dissolved especially in THF are better than those of the nanofibers composed of a commercial polymer with the addition of Ph-Me(t).