Johnson & Johnson vintage use of Absorbent Materials

Johnson & Johnson vintage use of Absorbent Materials

For thousands of years, plant-derived materials have served as the primary ingredient of absorbent materials. Jute, flax, silk, hemp, potatoes, and primarily cotton, have been employed since pre-Roman times. These simple plant-based fibers demonstrated molecular properties such as surface tension and colloid attraction, but it wasn’t until the development of the ultra microscope in 1903 that the size and structure of molecules was better understood and the actual chemical process of absorption grasped.

The late nineteenth century inspired a new wave of design for the specialized applications of absorbent material—as sanitary napkins and diapers—and eventually helped drive innovative applications for the burgeoning fields of organic and polymer science in the twentieth century.

The need for sterile bandages in medicine precipitated the design of mass-producible, absorbent materials.

In 1886, the medical supply company Johnson & Johnson developed surgical wound dressings made of heated, sterilized absorbent cotton with gauze overlay to prevent fibers sticking to wounds.

This design for sterile wound dressing became a fixed part of medical treatment, although it was still unavailable to the general public. However, as women changed their clothing styles and became more independent, demand increased for transportable absorbent menstrual napkins, as well as disposable diapers.

In 1887 an American, Maria Allen, created a cotton textile diaper covered with a perforated layer of paper, to draw blood away from the skin, with a gauze layer stitched around it. It was an improvement over the usual washable cotton ‘‘rag’’ that was extremely leaky (as both a sanitary napkin and a diaper).

However, it was too expensive for mass production.

Johnson & Johnson continued to improve on the absorption capacity of their original bandage.

They discovered that heating and compressing several layers of cotton together provided higher absorption, less leakage, and less bulk in their dressings. When the Lister Towel, as it was named, became widespread in 1896, menstrual products such as the German-manufactured Hartman’s Pads and bolts of ‘‘sanitary’’ cotton cloth appeared in catalogs for women. However, the Johnson & Johnson product was expensive.

Cotton, while readily available, still had to be hand picked, processed and sterilized. So, in 1915, an American paper supply company called Kimberly–Clark developed Cellucotton, a bandage material that combined sterile cotton with wood pulp-derived cellulose.

During World War I, nurses working in Europe began to use both the Lister Towel and Cellucotton as menstrual pads.

By 1921, propelled by this innovative application, Kimberly–Clark manufactured Cellucotton-based disposable pads called Kotex. Thick, with a gauze overlay, they employed several different securing devices. Used in diapers, Cellucotton was sometimes covered by a thick rubber pant, which inhibited evaporation and could exacerbate diaper rash and urinary tract infections in babies.

‘‘Breathability’’ would become one of the challenges in the decades to come.

After the turn of the twentieth century, the molecular properties of most fibers were thoroughly understood. Protein fiber-based materials, such as wool, are made up of long, parallel, molecular chains connected by cross-linkages.

While able to absorb 30 percent of its weight, it would also expel liquid readily when squeezed, making it an unattractive menstrual or diaper material. Plant-based material such as cotton was made up of long chains of cellulose molecules arranged in a collapsed tube-like fiber.

Cotton could easily absorb water by holding the water molecules within the tubes and between the fibers.

In addition, the shape of the fibers meant that cotton could be easily manipulated by surfactants and additives.

The rate of absorption depended largely on the surface tension between the absorbent material, and the fluid it was absorbing.

Manipulating surface tension would become an element of future products.

For the first half of the twentieth century, absorbent materials varied little, but design changed dramatically. Tampons, available for millennia, now incorporated the new cotton-hybrid materials and by 1930 appeared widely on the market. In 1936, Dr. Earle C. Haas, an American physician, created and earned a patent for a cardboard tampon applicator. Soon thereafter, his product became the first Tampax brand tampon and was sold by Tambrands.

By 1938, American chemist Wallace Hum Carothers of the DuPont Company had helped create nylon, the first polymer textile, and it was soon included as a barrier to prevent leakage.

In 1950, American housewife Marion Donovan created a plastic envelope from a nylon shower curtain that was perforated on one side and filled with absorbent cotton gauze. By 1973, scientists working at the Illinois-based National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research invented H-Span. They combined synthetic chemicals with cornstarch to create a uniquely absorbent polymer of hydrolyzed starch called polyacrylonitrile.

The ‘‘Super Slurper,’’ as it became known, was capable of absorbing up to 5,000 times its weight in water.

In a dry powdered state, the polymer chains are coiled and then treated with carboxylate to initiate a faster colloid transfer of water molecules to the starch.

Soon afterwards, ‘‘superthirsty’’ fibers appeared in absorbent products around the world.

By the late 1970s, disposable diapers included a layer of some sort of highly absorbent fibers, covered with a lightweight plastic or nylon shell that allowed for more evaporation without leakage.

The Americanbased company Procter & Gamble introduced a ‘‘superthirsty’’ synthetic material, made up of carboxymethylcellulose and polyester, into their tampons.

The product, named Rely, far surpassed the absorbency of other competing tampons.

Under competitive pressure, Tambrands and Playtex both produced versions of superthirsty tampons using derivatives of polyacrylate fibers.

Diaper designs began to include convenience features such as refastenable tapes, elastic legs, barrier leg cuffs, elasticized waistbands, and ‘‘fit’’ guides to guarantee less leakage.

The popular creped cotton tissue interior was replaced with denser cellulose-fiber mats, utilizing a highly absorbent cotton treated with a surfactant to encourage rapid absorption by increasing the surface tension between water molecules and cotton.

Research continued and resulted in a new wave of polymer-manipulated superabsorbers, namely hydrophilic cross-linked polymers. Incorporating a three-dimensional polymeric structure, this material did not dissolve in water and could absorb in three dimensions. By 1980, Japanese scientists created the first disposable diaper incorporating a superabsorbent polymer. Procter & Gamble soon developed ‘‘ultra thin’’ pads using a crystalline polymer layer that would gel when it absorbed water. This design also included a ‘‘Dri-Weave’’ top sheet, separating the wearer from the absorbent layer and using a capillary-like, nonwoven material to inhibit a reverse flow.

In the late 1970s, a dramatic increase in cases of toxic shock syndrome appeared among users of superabsorbent tampons. Eventually, the ‘‘superthirsty’’ absorbent was found to encourage growth of the bacteria Staphyloccocus aureus. In the early

1980s more health problems seemed to be linked to improvements in absorption, and by 1986

Tambrands and Playtex had removed their polyacrylate tampons from the market. Six years later the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that trace amounts of dioxin used to bleach and sterilize cotton components of pads, tampons, and diapers could cause birth defects and possibly cancer.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, pads were comprised of anything from an absorbent, compressed cotton and cellulose-pulp core, a plastic moisture-proof liner, a soft nonwoven textile for drawing moisture away from the skin (like viscose rayon and cotton blend), and chemicals such as polyacrylates to prevent leakage and keep the product from falling apart.

Scientists working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture had discovered that the cellulose properties of ground chicken feathers could be manipulated and used as an absorbent material, utilizing billions of tons of discarded poultry-plant waste. The fibers are straight polymer chains—like cotton—making them highly absorbent. Internationally, the use of tampons, disposable diapers, and sanitary napkins is still largely reserved for developed countries.

However, as more innovative techniques reduce the reliance on expensive imported products (e.g., bird feathers), the convenience of absorbent technology may stretch beyond current economic, cultural, and geographic borders.