About

Behnam Pourdeyhimi, PhD, is the William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor of Materials at the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State University. He joined NC State immediately after completing his PhD at the University of Leeds in 1982 and has since held positions at Cornell, the University of Maryland, and Georgia Tech before returning to NC State in the 1998-1999 academic year. He also serves as an adjunct professor in the departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, and as the Associate Dean of the Wilson College of Textiles. His early research focused on developing tools for characterizing various materials, including nonwovens, medical devices, and composite materials, earning him the ASTM D-13 Dewitt Smith Medal and the Fiber Society Distinguished Scientist award in 1994. He is renowned for his contributions to nonwovens and the growth of nonwovens research at NC State, particularly in filtration, which earned him the O’ Max Gardner award in 2015 and the Holladay Medal for Excellence in 2018. In 2020, he was inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Pourdeyhimi played a pivotal role in transforming the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center into the Nonwovens Institute, the largest university-based research institute in the nation, which is the world’s first accredited academic program for engineered fabrics. His research interests include nonwovens, biomaterials, modeling, image analysis, and filtration. He has published extensively, including books, monographs, over 375 refereed journal articles, and more than 250 conference presentations. His expertise is recognized globally, and he has acted as a consultant to major corporations and research bodies.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Composite material
• Chemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Optoelectronics
• Medicine
• Photochemistry
• Biology
• Microbiology
• Nanotechnology
• Organic chemistry

Selected publications

• Effect of Compatibilizers on Interfacial Strength in Microdenier Bicomponent Fibers

  Langmuir · 2026-03-17

  article

  Interfacial strength in bicomponent fibers remains a significant challenge jeopardizing durable adhesion and delamination prevention. An integrated experimental-numerical approach is developed here to engineer strengthened interfaces by means of compatibilizers and quantify their effect. Measurements of interfacial adhesion energy indicate that chemically dissimilar polyamide/polyolefin pairs reveal substantially lower values than those of polypropylene/polyethylene (PP/PE). In the case of PP/PE interfaces, compatibilizers markedly increase the adhesion energy while leaving bulk mechanical properties essentially unaffected. Numerical analysis identified that the area ratio and the mismatch in the thermal expansion are the dominant factors determining the interfacial stresses. Elucidation of additional material pairs and geometries reveals results ranging from stable compressive interfaces to disjoining high-stress regions that promote interfacial delamination. Overall, the results support the applicability of the present approach to provide quantitative guidance for designing bicomponent fibers toward either durable interfaces or delaminated interfaces by design.

  PublisherDOI

• Solvent-Free Air-Spray Deposition of a Metal–Organic Framework to Develop Fiber Web Composites

  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 2026-05-13

  article

  Metal–organic framework (MOF)-fiber composites integrate MOF’s tunable functionality with flexible fibrous matrices for applications in various areas, including water purification, filtration, gas adsorption, and sensing to catalysis. Conventional techniques for the fabrication of MOF-fiber composites often involve the use of harsh organic solvents and complex time-intensive processing steps and can result in composites with poor MOF adhesion. In our work, we address these challenges by developing a simple and solvent-free air-spray coating method for the fabrication of MOF-fiber web composites. We employ bicomponent nonwovens as our fibrous substrate, consisting of a shell/core structure with polypropylene in the core and poly(ether-block-amide) in the shell. MOF particles, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and UiO-66-NH2, are spray-coated onto a nonwoven fabric using compressed air in <1 min, followed by thermal treatment. This results in strong adhesion of MOF particles in the nonwoven matrix as well as fiber fusion, which enhances the mechanical strength of the resulting composites. Fabrication time (<25 min) is significantly lower than conventional methods. By optimizing the shell/core ratio in the fibers and thermal treatment conditions, we achieve surface areas of 66 m2/g for ZIF-8 and 162 m2/g for UiO-66-NH2 composites, respectively. Finally, ZIF-8 fiber web composite demonstrates >99% removal efficiency of copper ions (Cu(II)) from aqueous solutions, underscoring the applicability for water purification. Beyond ZIF-8 and UiO-66-NH2, the air-spray coating method is adaptable for other mechanically and thermally stable MOFs and various fibrous and nanofibrous structures. Overall, this work presents a scalable, simple, and solvent-free approach for MOF-fiber composite synthesis with broad applicability.

  PublisherDOI

• Computationally efficient simulation of electret filters via Eulerian formulations

  Journal of Aerosol Science · 2026-03-07

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Dynamic tensile loading improves neotendon formation at moderate daily loading cycles, but impairs neotendon formation at high daily loading cycles

  Journal of Biomechanics · 2026-03-06

  articleOpen access

  Synthetic polymer scaffolds with aligned fibers permit engineered tendon development and the formation of an aligned, collagen rich matrix. However, many tissue engineered constructs cannot withstand physiologically relevant loads. Both tendon development and normal homeostasis require loading, and tendons adapt to loading. In vitro loading of tissue engineered constructs further promotes engineered tendon development, but results vary by cell type, strain applied, and frequency of the loading. However, both under- and overloading of tendon is detrimental and disrupts stiffness and collagen organization in vivo, and levels of loading comparable to that which occurs during fetal development are generally unexplored for engineered tendon development. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal number of daily cycles of dynamic tensile loading for in vitro human adipose stem cell (hASC) cultured on poly(ε-caprolactone) 3D meltblown scaffolds. hASC-seeded scaffolds were loaded for 0 (control), 1,000 (low), 5,000 (moderate), 10,000 (high) cycles 3 times/week to 6% strain at 1 Hz. Loading at 5,000-cycles/session led to increased dsDNA, collagen, and collagen/dsDNA compared to unloaded control, and 1,000-cycles/session was intermediate in response. Loading up to 10,000-cycles/session increased dsDNA compared to unloaded control and the 5,000-cycle group but did not increase collagen content or collagen/dsDNA. Dynamic loading had no effect on glycosaminoglycan expression or collagen alignment. Loading at 5,000-cycles/session increased linear region modulus, yield stress, phase shift, and hysteresis and secant stiffness at high strains compared to the unloaded control but did not affect yield stretch or stress relaxation. However, the 10,000-cycle group was detrimental to mechanical properties, suggesting an overload phenotype.

  PublisherDOI

• Investigation of Adhesion in Extruded PET/PA Bicomponent Polymer Systems

  ACS Applied Polymer Materials · 2025-01-13 · 2 citations

  article

  Adhesion plays a critical role in the formation of intricate multicomponent fiber morphologies, which has become a standard in the manufacturing of nonwoven mats. In this study, we investigate the effect of the introduction of an interfacial modifier comprising poly(octadecene-alt-maleic anhydride) (POMA) into poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and various polyamides (PA) (i.e., PA66, PA6, PA12, and PA12) during the extrusion process of nonwoven bicomponent fibers and bicomponent polymer films by utilizing a specially designed die setup. The asymmetric double cantilever beam and peel tests were used to quantify the effect of modifier addition on the fracture energy between PET and PAs during the extrusion. The study examined various fiber production operating conditions (temperature, throttle pressure, and POMA concentration) and composition feed of polymer pairs, observing consistent trends in fracture energy reduction. We established that during the fiber extrusion process, POMA rapidly segregates to the PET/PA interface and interferes with the formation of amide bonds between extruded polymers, reducing adhesion for all tested modifier concentrations. Additionally, the mechanical properties of the extruded fibers remained unaffected by the presence of POMA. These findings hold significant implications for researchers and practitioners in the packaging, automotive, and medical industries, aiding the design of optimal fiber production processes.

  PublisherDOI

• High-capacity nonwoven increases productivity of mAb purification in an all-membrane process

  Separation and Purification Technology · 2025-03-19 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  • A new multimodal anion exchange (MMA) nonwoven membrane was developed. • The MMA membrane exhibited a higher binding capacity than the counterpart resin. • The MMA membrane was used for capture of a mAb from CHO supernatant. • An all-nonwoven membrane chromatography process was developed for mAb purification. • The all-membrane process exhibited a higher production efficiency than the platform resin process. There is significant interest in alternative manufacturing processes for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to improve productivity and reduce cost. To identify a cost-effective and high-productivity alternative to the conventional Protein A-based mAb capture step, this study presents the development of a high-performance multimodal anion exchange (MMA) membrane utilizing N-Benzyl-N-methylethanolamine (BMEA) as the ligand which was covalently coupled to a polyglycidyl methacrylate (pGMA) UV-grafted polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) nonwoven. The DBC 10% of the MMA membrane for IgG ranged from 32.8-42.4 mg/mL at 0.5 to 5 min residence time. The membrane exhibited an excellent salt tolerance in protein binding near physiological conditions, high flow permeability and good reusability. The MMA membrane also showed a DBC 10% of 59.2 mg/mL for direct capture of a mAb from a CHO supernatant without the need for pH or conductivity adjustments, along with a recovery of 94.3%, a 1.0 log reduction value (LRV) of host cell proteins (HCPs), a 1.8 LRV for DNA, and a reduction of aggregates from 5.4% to 0.9%. This capture step was implemented in an all-membrane mAb purification process that included a viral inactivation step and two polishing steps using an anion exchange nonwoven (AEX-TEA) and a multimodal cation exchange nonwoven (MMC-MPCA). A side-by-side comparison with a platform mAb purification process using Protein A resin and two ion exchange resins showed that the all-membrane process exhibited similar impurity clearance, higher overall recovery (88.3% vs. 77.5%) and significantly reduced processing time (3.8 h vs. 13.1 h) with fewer steps as it eliminates the need for diafiltration for buffer exchange.

  PublisherDOI

• Python implementation of pore morphology method enhanced with convolutional neural network for cost-effective simulation of fluid saturation in porous media

  Chemical Engineering Science · 2025-11-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Effect of bond temperature and bond pattern on fuzz formation in thermally point-bonded spunbond nonwovens

  Journal of the Textile Institute · 2025-02-03

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Debonding in bicomponent chemical fibers

  Chemical Engineering Journal · 2025-07-17 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Here, solidification and bonding of different polymers in bicomponent fibers formed by meltblowing is explored theoretically and experimentally. The two-dimensional thermoelasticity problem for typical bicomponent fiber cross-sections is posed and solved to predict the stress fields developing due to the thermal stresses emerging during fiber solidification in flight. The interfacial stresses (which can become under certain conditions disjoining and thus, potentially detrimental) between two polymers are predicted and compared to the experimentally-established critical debonding stresses, characteristic of polymer pairs of interest. The analytical benchmark problems of thermoelastic theory are based on the solutions for the thermoelastic potential and the Airy stress function. The more general and involved cases are solved numerically, while the numerical accuracy is facilitated by comparisons with the analytical benchmark cases. The critical disjoining (debonding) stresses established experimentally in the accompanying work are used to draw conclusions regarding the conditions leading to debonding and failure of bicomponent fibers. • Thermoelastic stress fields in some chemical bicomponent fibers were predicted and analyzed analytically. • Thermoelastic stress fields in all other bicomponent fibers were predicted numerically. • Numerical solutions were benchmarked against several analytical cases. • Generalization for the case of viscoelastic bicomponent fibers was given. • Interfacial delamination in fibers were predicted in conjunction with experimental data.

  PublisherDOI

• Water imbibition and swelling of natural filaments: Hemp, jute, and flax – Auxetic, negative Poisson’s Ratio (NPR) materials

  Industrial Crops and Products · 2025-09-28 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• H. Vahedi Tafreshi

  141 shared

• Alexander L. Yarin

  109 shared

• Suman Sinha‐Ray

  62 shared

• Elizabeth G. Loboa

  Southern Methodist University

  43 shared

• Eunkyoung Shim

  North Carolina State University

  40 shared

• Vadim V. Silberschmidt

  Loughborough University

  30 shared

• Emrah Demirci

  Loughborough University

  28 shared

• Amit Kumar

  28 shared

Labs

• The Nonwovens InstitutePI

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of Leeds

  1982

Awards & honors

• ASTM D-13 Dewitt Smith Medal
• Fiber Society Distinguished Scientist award (1994)
• Fiber Society Lecturer
• Fiber Society Best Paper award
• INTC Best Paper Ward