Search Results (11)

The increased consumption of apparel has resulted in a corresponding increase in the volume of waste textiles, with polyester–cotton blended textiles accounting for as much as 80% of the total. However, extant recycling methodologies are beset by challenges, including high cost and difficulty in separation. Mycelium has been shown to possess the ability to degrade complex components in culture substrates. The present study explores the feasibility of using polyester–cotton yarn as a substrate for mycelium composite materials, thus offering an innovative approach to the treatment of waste blended textiles. Five mycelium composite materials with varying polyester–cotton ratios were prepared and tested for mechanical strength, moisture resistance, and biodegradability. ANOVA analysis confirmed that all properties of the mycelium composites were significantly influenced by the polyester–cotton matrix ratio, with partial eta-squared (ηp²) exceeding 84% across all properties. The most significant effect was observed in compressive strength (ηp² > 99%). Experiments identified a 65:35 polyester–cotton ratio as yielding optimal comprehensive properties: namely, a compressive strength of 0.221 MPa and flexural strength of 0.791 MPa, coupled with excellent moisture resistance and biodegradability. This provides data support for the development of textile-based mycelium composite products. In light of the aforementioned performance studies and material characteristics, the development of three series of experiential home products was undertaken. Design evaluations were conducted to explore the potential application of mycelium composites, which could have significant implications for promoting sustainable development in the textile and apparel industry and advancing innovative designs for mycelium composite materials. Full article

Classical and modern methods are used to release curcumin by degrading the polysaccharides found in the turmeric powder matrix. Classical methods use chemicals as acids (HCl, H₂SO₄, CH₃COOH), oxidants (H₂O₂, kojic acid), and enzymes (amylase type) that can degrade amylose and amylopectin from starch. The modern applied methods consist of the degradation of the polysaccharides in the turmeric powder during eco-friendly processes assisted by ultrasound or microwaves. The extraction medium can consist of only water, water with a solvent, and/or an oxidizing agent. The presence of curcumin in turmeric powder is confirmed by FTIR analysis. The UV–VIS analysis of the extracts allows the determination of the efficiency of modern extraction processes. The release of curcumin from turmeric is highlighted quantitatively by colorimetric measurements for the obtained extracts, using a portable DataColor spectrophotometer. The comparison of the results leads to the conclusion that microwave-assisted extractions are the most effective. These extracts are able to dye many types of textile fibers: wool, cotton, hemp, silk, polyacrylonitrile, polyamide, polyester, and cellulose acetate. CIELab and color strength (K/S) measurements indicate that the most intense yellow colors are obtained on polyacrylonitrile (b* = 86.32, K/S = 15.14) and on cellulose acetate (b* = 90.40, K/S = 14.17). Full article

Zinc oxide-modified tourmaline-based negative ion polyester fiber (ZnO/TM/PET), as a new functional fiber with excellent negative ion emission characteristics, is of great significance to human health, and its industrial application needs to be expanded and promoted. In this paper, using zinc oxide, tourmaline, and polyethylene terephthalate as the main raw materials, ZnO/TM/PET negative ion functional fiber with 5% ZnO/TM composites was prepared. Then, it was blended with cotton fiber and interknitted with wool yarn and spandex yarn, from which we developed five kinds of negative ion polyester/cotton-blended yarn and four different kinds of knitted double-sided fabric using different equipment and process parameters. The micromorphology of the fiber samples, the basic properties of the blended yarns, and the wearability and functional properties of the knitted fabrics were tested. The results show that the ZnO/TM negative ion additive is randomly dispersed in the polymer matrix without visible conglobation and the fiber has a good appearance. The blending ratio has an important effect on the properties of functional polyester/cotton blended yarn. The higher the ratio of negative ion polyester fiber in the blended yarn, the better the mechanical index of the blended yarn, the higher the negative ion emission, and the lower the hairiness index. The performances of fabric are influenced by the comprehensive action of fiber raw material type, yarn ratio, fabric tightness, and structure. The mechanical properties of the fabric knitted from negative ion polyester/cotton-blended yarn are lower than those made from negative ion polyester filament yarn. In the case of the same fabric structure, the negative ion emission performance, far-infrared emission performance, and antibacterial property of the fabric with a higher ratio of negative ion functional fiber is better than the lower ratio. With the same yarn composition, the negative ion emission performance and air permeability of the fabric with a loose structure are better than that of the fabric with a tight structure, but the moisture permeability, far-infrared emission properties, and antibacterial properties show little difference. Full article

The main aim of the present work is to evaluate and characterize the mechanical, morphological and thermal properties of wastes coming from the textile industry, mainly composed of cotton and polyester. These wastes will be thereafter implemented in commodity plastic such as polyamide, in order to develop new formulations of environmentally friendly materials. The composites were produced by extrusion and injection-molded processes in amounts between 15 wt.% and 60 wt.% of textile waste. With the objective of improving the properties of the materials, silanes were used as a compatibilizer between the textile fibers and the polymeric matrix. The effect of the compatibilizer in the composites was studied together with the effect of the amount of textile fiber added to the composites. Mechanical, thermal, morphological and wettability properties were analyzed for each composite. The results show that the use of silanes improves the interaction especially in those composites with a higher amount of textile waste, offering a balanced mechanical behavior with significantly high quantities. On the other hand, the melting temperature does not vary significantly with the introduction of silanes and textile waste content, although the incorporation of textile waste slightly reduces up to 23% the degradation temperature of the resulting composites. The wettability of the composites is also increased up to 16% with the incorporation of textile waste. Finally, the appearance of the composites with textile waste is strongly influenced by the incorporation of the reinforcement, offering shades close to dark brown in the whole range of compositions. Full article

Nanofiber technology is leading the revolution of wearable technology and provides a unique capability to fabricate smart textiles. With the novel fabrication technique of electrospinning, nanofibers can be fabricated and then manufactured into a durable conductive string for the application of smart textiles. This paper presents an electrospun nanofiber mesh-based (NF-Felt) string electrode with a conducting polymer coating for an electrochemical enzymatic glucose sensor. The surface area of a nanofiber matrix is a key physical property for enhanced glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme binding for the development of an electrochemical biosensor. A morphological characterization of the NF-Felt string electrode was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and compared with a commercially available cotton–polyester (Cot-Pol) string coated with the same conducting polymer. The results from stress–strain testing demonstrated high stretchability of the NF-Felt string. Also, the electrochemical characterization results showed that the NF-Felt string electrode was able to detect a glucose concentration in the range between 0.0 mM and 30.0 mM with a sensitivity of 37.4 μA/mM·g and a detection limit of 3.31 mM. Overall, with better electrochemical performance and incredible flexibility, the NF-Felt-based string electrode is potentially more suitable for designing wearable biosensors for the detection of glucose in sweat. Full article

This research aims to evaluate the physical and mechanical performance of three types of hybrid composites made of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) (DP), additional layers of cotton (DP/C) and Kevlar fibres (DP/K). The fibres were formed into flat sheets and employed as reinforcement layers embedded in a polyester matrix. Three-layer and five-layer hybrid composites were created using the hand layup method. The layers have alternative longitudinal–transversal orientation. The composites were investigated for density, thickness swelling (TS), water absorption (WA), flexural strength and modulus of elasticity (MOE) properties. Moreover, the composites were subjected to cycles of water immersion, freezing and drying, and the changes in mass and mechanical performance were analysed before and after the cyclic testing. The hybrid composite with Kevlar as the inner layers displayed better physical and mechanical properties when compared to the other two hybrid composites. A stereo-microscopic investigation revealed that poor adhesion between the layers of composites contributed to a reduction in the mechanical properties of DP/C and DP hybrid composites. The DP/C composite had the highest thickness swelling and water absorption, with the water uptake more pronounced than in the cases of the other composites. The hybridisation of date palms with Kevlar fibres improved the properties of the hybrid composites. Full article

Sexual assault kits are the standard method for collecting and preserving sexual assault evidence. During the sexual assault examination, swabs are commonly used to collect bodily fluids as sexual assault evidence from the vagina, anus, mouth, and skin. The type of fiber swab used during collection can greatly influence the recovery of the substrate. In cases where lubricant residue may be present, it would be useful to identify the swab type that would be the most efficient in the collection of lubricant residues. In this study, four types of swabs with different fibers (i.e., cotton, polyester, rayon, and foam) with sexual lubricants present, were extracted in various solvents. The extracts were analyzed using attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCCs) test was applied to determine a pairwise comparison between swab lube extracts and the standard lubricant reference. Visual comparisons of the lubricant reference, blank fiber swab, and the fiber lubricant extract were used to determine peak overlap, significance, and matrix interference. Full article

The circularity of polymer waste is an emerging field of research in Europe. In the present research, the thermal, surface, mechanical, and tribological properties of polypropylene (PP)-based composite produced by injection molding were studied. The pure PP matrix was reinforced with 10, 30, and 40% wt. of pure cotton, synthetic polyester, and polyethylene terephthalate post-consumer fibers using a combination of direct extrusion and injection molding techniques. Results indicate that PP-PCPESF-10% wt. exhibits the highest value of tensile strength (29 MPa). However, the values of tensile and flexural strain were lowered with an increase in fiber content due to the presence of micro-defects. Similarly, the values of modulus of elasticity, flexural modulus, flexural strength, and impact energy were enhanced due to an increase in the amount of fiber. The PP-PCCF-40% wt. shows the highest values of flexural constant (2780 MPa) and strength (57 MPa). Additionally, the increase in fiber loadings is directly proportional to the creation of micro-defects, surface roughness, abrasive wear, coefficient of friction, and erosive wear. The lowest average absolute arithmetic surface roughness value (R_a) of PP and PP-PCCF, 10% wt., were 0.19 µm and 0.28 µm. The lowest abrasive wear value of 3.09 × 10⁻⁶ mm³/Nm was found for pure PP. The erosive wear value (35 mm³/kg) of PP-PCCF 40% wt. composite material was 2 to 17 times higher than all other composite materials. Finally, the single-step analysis of variance predicts reasonable results in terms of the p-values of each composite material for commercial applications. Full article

Spectral reflectance reconstruction for multispectral images (such as Weiner estimation) may perform sub-optimally when the object being measured has a texture that is not in the training set. The accuracy of the reconstruction is significantly lower without training samples. We propose an improved reflectance reconstruction method based on L1-norm penalization to solve this issue. Using L1-norm, our method can provide the transformation matrix with the favorable sparse property, which can help to achieve better results when measuring the unseen samples. We verify the proposed method by reconstructing spectral reflection for four types of materials (cotton, paper, polyester, and nylon) captured by a multispectral imaging system. Each of the materials has its texture and there are 204 samples in each of the materials/textures in the experiments. The experimental results show that when the texture is not included in the training dataset, L1-norm can achieve better results compared with existing methods using colorimetric measure (i.e., color difference) and shows consistent accuracy across four kinds of materials. Full article

Interpretation of data from fire debris is considered as one of the most challenging steps in fire investigation. Forensic analysts are tasked to identify the presence or absence of ignitable liquid residues (ILRs) which may indicate whether a fire was started deliberately. So far, data analysis is subjected to human interpretation following the American Society for Testing and Materials’ guidelines (ASTM E1618) based on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry data. However, different factors such as interfering pyrolysis compounds may hinder the interpretation of data. Some substrates release compounds that are in the range of common ignitable liquids, which interferes with accurate determination of ILRs. The aim of the current research is to investigate whether headspace–mass spectroscopy electronic nose (HS-MS eNose) combined with pattern recognition can be used to classify different ILRs from fire debris samples that contain a complex matrix (petroleum-based substrates or synthetic fibers carpet) that can strongly interfere with their identification. Six different substrates—four petroleum-derived substrates (vinyl, linoleum, polyester, and polyamide carpet), as well as two different materials for comparison purposes (cotton and cork) were used to investigate background interferences. Gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and charcoal starter with kerosene were used as ignitable liquids. In addition, fire debris samples were taken after different elapsed times. A total of 360 fire debris samples were analyzed. The obtained total ion mass spectrum was combined with unsupervised exploratory techniques such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) as well as supervised linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The results from HCA show a strong tendency to group the samples according to the ILs and substrate used, and LDA allowed for a full identification and discrimination of every ILR regardless of the substrate. Full article

Greige cotton (GC) has attracted interest in recent years as an eco-friendly, functional fiber for use in nonwoven topsheet materials. GC imparts favorable fluid management and sensorial properties associated with urinary liquid transport and indices related to comfort in wearable incontinence nonwovens. Nonwoven GC has material surface polarity, an ambient moisture content, and a lipid/polysaccharide matrix that imparts positive fluid mechanic properties applicable to incontinence management topsheet materials. However, a better understanding of the connection between functionality and compositional aspects of molecular, mechanical, and material property relations is still required to employ structure/function relations beyond a priori design. Thus, this study focuses on the relation of key indices of material fluid and sensorial functions to nonwoven topsheet composition. Greige cotton, polypropylene, bleached cotton, and polyester fiber blends were hydroentangled at 60, 80, and 100 bar. Greige cotton polypropylene and bleached cotton were blended at ratios to balance surface polarity, whereas low percentages of polyester were added to confer whiteness properties. Electrokinetic and contact angle measurements were obtained for the hydroentangled nonwovens to assess surface polarity in light of material composition. Notably, materials demonstrated a relation of hydrophobicity to swelling as determined electrokinetically by Δζ, ζ_plateau, and contact angles greater than 90°. Subsequently, three blended nonwoven fabrics were selected to assess effects on fluid management properties including topsheet performance indices of rewet, strikethrough, and fluid handling (rate and efficiency of transport to the absorbent core). These materials aligned well with commercial topsheet fluid mechanics. Using the Leeds University Fabric Handle Evaluation System (LUFHES), the nonwovens were tested for total fabric hand. The results of the LUFHES measurements are discussed in light of fiber contributions. Fiber ratios were found to correlate well with improvement in softness, flexibility, and formability. This study provides insights that improves the understanding of the multifunctional properties accessible with greige cotton toward decisions valuable to selecting greige cotton as an environmentally friendly fiber for nonwoven topsheets. Full article