Investigation on the sound absorption performance of polypropylene/polyethylene glycol ultrafine fibers by melt differential electrospinning process

Abstract

Ultrafine fibers have broad application prospects in the field of sound absorption. In this work, novel ultrafine sound absorbers of polypropylene/polyethylene glycol (PP/PEG) were successfully prepared by green and efficient melt differential electrospinning (MDES) process. The effects of fibers diameter, samples thickness and cavity depth on sound absorption performance were systematically analyzed by impedance tubes method. The samples have excellent sound-absorbing performance especially in low and medium frequencies (<1000 Hz). When the average fibers diameter reached 1.8 μm, samples thickness was 26 mm and the cavity depth was 40 mm, the optimal sound absorption coefficient (SAC) was 0.93 and the corresponding frequency was 235 Hz (It is difficult for the SAC of mainstream sound absorbers to reach 0.9 when frequency is below 400 Hz). This investigation provides critical insight on the design and fabrication of a highly efficient low and medium frequency sound absorbers.