Waterproof and breathable membranes which can be resistant to liquid water penetration and allowable to vapor transmission would have significant implication in numerous applications. Despite the available strategies, it still remains a serious challenge to fabricate membranes with good breathable and waterproof performance. Herein, we reported a kind of waterproof and breathable macroporous membrane fabricated from polyurethane (PU), fluorinated polyurethane (FPU), and lithium chloride (LiCl) via electrospinning. Benefiting from the diversification of conductivity adjusted by LiCl, characteristics of the membranes including fiber diameter, pore size and distribution, even the orientation and aggregation of macromolecules could be simultaneously regulated, which brought about tremendous improvement of waterproof, breathable and mechanical performance. Significantly, the relationship among waterproofness, wettability and pore size has been confirmed to be finely consistent with the Young–Laplace equation. Meanwhile, the water vapor transmission rate increased with the increasing porosity, and the mechanical strength enhanced with the improved orientation structure of PU macromolecules. Ultimately, the resultant membranes exhibited improved hydrostatic pressure (82.1 kPa) and water vapor transmission rate (10.9 kg m<sup>-2</sup> d<sup>-1</sup>), as well as enhanced tensile strength (11.6 MPa), which make them promising candidates for many potential applications such as protective clothing.

Polyurethane/fluorinated polyurethane membranes with waterproof and breathable performance improved by lithium chloride

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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