A study of the inter- and intra-fibre pore characteristics of some nylon fabrics by mercury porosimetry

The effective pore size distributions of twelve non-woven nylon materials have been measured using the mercury injection technique. All show intrusions at pressures up to 20 psi due to inter-fibre voids; five materials show significant intrusions between 50 and 30,000 psi corresponding to intra-fibre voids the presence of which is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. It appears, on applying a rigorous correction to the data for the compressibilities of the glass sample cell and contents, that the nylon remains compressed on releasing the pressure from 30,000 psi, and the mercury has a lower compressibility above 10,000 psi than it has below this pressure; the glass sample cell shows a delayed elastic effect when the pressure is reduced. The maxima of the effective pore size distributions of the intra-fibre voids are in the range 80 – 600 Å radius.