Abstract
Cotton contains a relatively low amount of impurities, being 90 to 95% cellulose. Cotton requires large amounts of water, pesticides and land to produce. Bacterial cellulose (BC) requires little land, no pesticides and less water to produce. This material typically grows as a nonwoven fiber mat which restricts use for apparel products. This research investigated the properties of the material once twisted into yarns in comparison to cotton. Pure BC was grown using Hestrin Schramm Mannitol media. After processing, half of the BC samples had twist added manually and half were dried flat. These samples were compared to mercerized and un-mercerized cotton yarns. Most BC yarns outperformed cotton yarns in breaking strength and extension. However, when accounting for yarn tex, many BC samples failed to outperform cotton in terms of tenacity. Strength suffered when the BC was twisted into yarns. However, elongation was superior to cotton in most sample groups.
Highlights
Cellulose is a polysaccharide of glucose units making up the main component of cell walls of several plants (Merriam-Webster, 2019)
The average breaking strength of the Bacterial cellulose (BC) yarns was superior to cotton yarns in every condition, ranging from 36.33 N to 219.96 N
This is compared to the unmercerized cotton samples average at 5.83 N and commercial cotton samples which registered 3.19 N average
Summary
Cellulose is a polysaccharide of glucose units making up the main component of cell walls of several plants (Merriam-Webster, 2019). The traditional method of BC cultivation relies on static fermentation using carbon sources such as glucose, fructose and sucrose (Bae & Shoda, 2004). The three main methods of textile fabrication are woven, knitted, and nonwoven. Yarns for woven fabrics, in particular yarns located in the warp, need to have higher strength, more uniform structure, and higher twist (Kadolph, 2007).
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