Commercial Fabrics Research Articles

Superior filaments-based fabric with thermal-mechanical-electrical coupling properties for remote temperature alarm

The safeguarding fabrics featuring good thermal insulation, flame retardancy, and force dissipation simultaneously remain challenging due to the current filaments with limited properties. Herein, a novel and flame-retardant filament (F-filament) is developed by hot-extruding the mixture of shear stiffening gel/thermoplastic polyurethane (SSG/TPU) and microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate (MHAPP), which is conducive to knitting protective fabrics. The conductive F-filament (cF-filament) is further prepared by incorporating with MXene. The F-filament-based fabrics present better anti-impact properties than commercial fabrics and can dissipate 6.32 kN impacting force to 1.89 kN. The patterned knitted fabric also facilitates heat exchange, reducing the contact temperature of the body surface to approximately 37 °C when exposed to an 80 °C heat source, effectively avoiding thermal damage through its porous structure. Moreover, the F-filament-based fabrics are intact even after 19 s of continuous burning. Notably, the cF-filament is demonstrated for use as a sensor for real-time multimodal monitoring, such as detecting external mechanical loadings and temperature stimuli. The cF-filament sensor can be integrated into the F-filament-based knitted fabrics, which accurately realizes environmental monitoring and explores the best-escaping route through a remote temperature alarm system.

Valorization of nopal wastes to produce quantum dots: optimizing synthesis and exploring in smart textile applications

Quantum carbon dots (QCDs) were efficiently synthesized from post-extraction residues generated during nopal fabric production using a hydrothermal treatment. These QCDs were applied to nopal fabrics, enhancing their UV solar radiation absorption. The synthesized QCDs exhibited fluorescence emissions in the 200–300 nm range. An eco-friendly dispersion was created by incorporating QCDs into TiO2 for use in smart textiles, which underlines our commitment to maintaining a sustainable process. Bright and fluorescent patterns were successfully applied to commercial and nopal fabrics using a spray printing technique. Additionally, the QCDs demonstrated pH-sensitive color changes, paving the way for practical applications. This work represents an initial step towards a circular economy by utilizing residues from nopal fabric production to synthesize quantum dots, which may be employed in smart textiles applications with UV absorption capabilities.

Energy harvesting and movement tracking by polypyrrole functionalized textile for wearable IoT applications

Textiles for health and sporting activity monitoring are on the rise with the advent of smart portable wearables. The intention of this work is to design wireless monitoring wearables, based on widely available textiles and low environmental impact production technologies. Herein we have developed a polymeric ink which is able to functionalize different types of textile fibers (including silver conducting fibers, cotton, and commercial textile) with polypyrrole. These fibers were weaved together with a thinner silver conducting fiber and carbon fiber to form a touch-sensitive energy harvesting system that would generate an electric output when mechanical pressure is applied to it. Different prototypes were manufactured with loom weaving accessories to simulate real textile cloths. By simple touch, the prototypes produced a maximum voltage of 244 V and a maximum power density of 2.29 W m−2. The current generated is then transformed into a digital signal, which is further utilized for human motion or gesture monitorization. The system comprises a wireless block for the Internet of Things (IoT) applicability that will be eventually extended to future remote health and sports monitoring systems.

Alkaline-Responsive, Self-Healable, and Conductive Copolymer Composites with Enhanced Mechanical Properties Tailored for Wearable Tech.

Despite significant advancements, current self-healing materials often suffer from a compromise between mechanical robustness and functional performance, particularly in terms of conductivity and responsiveness to environmental stimuli. Addressing this issue, the research introduces a self-healable and conductive copolymer, poly(ionic liquid-co-acrylic acid) (PIL-co-PAA), synthesized through free radical polymerization, and further optimized by incorporating thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). This combination leverages the unique properties of each component, especially ion-dipole interactions and hydrogen bonds, resulting in a material that exhibits exceptional self-healing abilities and demonstrates enhanced mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. Moreover, the PIL-co-PAA/TPU films showcase alkaline-responsive behavior, a feature that broadens their applicability in dynamic environments. Through systematic characterization, including thermogravimetric analysis, tensile testing, and electrical properties measurements, the mechanisms behind the improved performance and functionality of these films are elucidated. The conductivities and ultimate tensile strength (σuts) of the PIL-co-PAA/TPU films regain 80% under 8h healing process. To extend the applications for wearable devices, the self-healing properties of commercial cotton fabrics coated with the self-healable PIL-co-PAA are also investigated, demonstrating both self-healing and electrical properties. This study advances the understanding of self-healable conductive polymers and opens new avenues for their application in wearable technology.

A facile route to fabricate transparent and mechanically robust glass-fabric reinforced composites via refractive index matching and tow-spreading technique

There are challenges to fabricate GFRPs with high optical clarity and mechanical performance due to the inevitable chromatic dispersion and yarn crimp in the fabric. Herein, a facile route to fabricate transparent glass-fabric reinforced composites is reported using refractive index matching and tow-spreading technique. By introducing different amount of BMA, the epoxy matrix could match the refractive index of glass fibers at different wavelength. The fabricated composites exhibit intriguing pale blue/blue, dark blue/ purple, purple-pink/pink chromatic dispersion, respectively. Among them, the 0.2 mm-thick GFRP with 4 % BMA (fiber volume fraction ≈ 50.4 %) exhibits the highest total transmittance (89.5 %) and lowest haze (3.4 %). Compared with commercial standard-tow fabric, composites with spread-tow fabrics exhibits less chromatic dispersion and transparency loss. Moreover, simultaneously reinforcing and toughening effect could be observed in the composites with BMA modified matrix. The optimized composites possess tensile strength of 289 MPa and flexural strength of 416 MPa.

Bioinspired fireproof textiles with hierarchical micropore for radiative cooling and perspiration

Even though the huge potential in significantly decreasing the energy consumption for cooling buildings and the human body is presented by radiative cooling technology, there is still a long way to realize its real-commercial application, considering comprehensive performances, such as safety, comfort, longevity, and production cost. Inspired by the biological micro-nano structures of Cyphochilus, we develop a one-step, large-scale, and low commercial-cost method to prepare multifunctional composite textiles, with effective cooling, fire safety, and directional water transportation. The high emissivity (96.8 %) in the atmospheric window and high reflectivity (97.1 %) in the solar waveband are successfully achieved. When exposed to direct sunlight, composite textiles can achieve up to 5 °C below commercial textiles at a solar intensity of 750 W•m−2. Besides, the directional water transportation and the excellent mechanical strength further improve the practical application. This work proposes a radiatively cooled composite textile to achieve personal thermal management and fire protection to meet the needs of specialty garments such as firefighting suits.

Sweat Gland‐Like Fabric for Personal Thermal‐Wet Comfort Management

AbstractThe sweat evaporation strategy has shown great potential for passive cooling of the human body. However, the accumulation of sweat at the skin resulting from the hindrance by traditional fabrics increases the heat load and causes the clothing to stick to the skin. Sweat evaporation cooling textiles that perform the sweat‐wicking function of sweat glands are thus highly desirable. Here, a sweat gland‐like (Sg‐like) fabric is proposed for personal thermal‐wet comfort management. The Sg‐like channels formed in the fabric through spraying and ultrasonic welding processes can pull liquid water from the skin and spread it out over the outer layer of the fabric for rapid evaporation. The Sg‐like design principle is also well‐validated based on colored fabrics. In artificial sweating skin demonstrations, the temperature of skin covered with the Sg‐like fabric is comparable to that of bare skin and lower than that of skin covered with commercial textiles. In human body tests, a temperature reduction of ≈2 °C is observed in sweating for skin coated with the Sg‐like fabric compare with skin‐coated cotton. It is expected this work offers promising guidelines for developing a sweat‐evaporation cooling textile to meet the thermal‐wet comfort requirements of the human body.

Innervate Commercial Fabrics with Spirally-Layered Iontronic Fibrous Sensors Toward Dual-Functional Smart Garments.

Electronic fabrics exhibit desirablebreathability, wearing comfort, and easy integration with garments. However, surficial deposition of electronically functional materials/compounds onto fabric substrates would consequentially alter their intrinsic properties (e.g., softness, permeability, biocompatibility, etc.). To address this issue, here, a strategy to innervate arbitrary commercial fabrics with unique spirally-layered iontronic fibrous (SLIF) sensors is presented to realize both mechanical and thermal sensing functionalities without sacrificing the intrinsic fabric properties. The mechanical sensing function is realized via mechanically regulating the interfacial ionic supercapacitance between two perpendicular SLIF sensors, while the thermal sensing function is achieved based on thermally modulating the intrinsic ionic impedance in a single SLIF sensor. The resultant SLIF sensor-innervated electronic fabrics exhibit high mechanical sensitivity of 81N-1, superior thermal sensitivity of 34,400Ω°C-1, and more importantly, greatly minimized mutual interference between the two sensing functions. As demonstrations, varioussmart garments are developed for the precise monitoring of diverse human physiological signals. Moreover, artificial intelligence-assisted object recognition with high-accuracy (97.8%) is demonstrated with a SLIF sensor-innervated smart glove. This work opens up a new path toward the facile construction of versatile smart garments for wearable healthcare, human-machine interfaces, and the Internet of Things.

Effect of acidic environment exposure on mechanical properties of TRM composites

With the increasing application of textile-reinforced mortars (TRMs) for the strengthening of existing masonry structures, knowing the long-term behavior of these composites is increasingly of great importance. In recent years, there has been a progressive research effort on the durability of TRM composites following different aging protocols, yet the durability of TRMs still necessitates comprehensive experimental studies for a better understanding of their behavior. On the other hand, there is also a lack of established aging methods, including acidic attack.The present study aims to leverage knowledge of the durability of TRMs when exposed to acidic attack. For this purpose, two different commercial fabrics made of glass and basalt fibers and a lime-based mortar have been used. In parallel, two aging conditions were also investigated considering 1000, 3000, and 5000 hours of exposure. Overall, a total number of 462 specimens were tested, including tests for the matrix, fabric, and composite. Compressive, flexural, and elastic modulus tests studied the variation in the mechanical properties of mortar, tensile tests focused on the textiles, and pull-out and single-lap shear tests were used for TRM composite’s behavior. To investigate possible changes in material behavior due to aging, mineralogical and chemical analysis including Optical Microscopy, SEM, XRD, and TGA were carried out.

Thermogravimetry as a tool to evaluate the contribution of different fabric constituents to fibre release

AbstractThis study introduces a methodology to easily estimate the composition of textile fibre mixtures, whether they are arranged in fabrics or fibre bundles, in order to assist the examination of fibre release from textiles, simplifying the process of analysis. The proposed method consists of the deconvolution of DTG signals, and the identification of the constituent associated with each peak. To assess the effectiveness of this method, the study analyses raw textile fibres, both individually and blended in different systems to characterize the thermal degradation of each one and their interaction when mixed. Such analysis of raw fibres is applied to commercial fabrics with known compositions and their released fibres in pilling experiments. The studied fibres are polyester (PET), cotton, wool and acrylic, while the blends encompass the systems PET + cotton, PET + wool, PET + cotton + acrylic. Hence, the method is evaluated. It can be applied to fast identification of textile compositions and can further aid in the identification of fibres in pilling tests.

Flexible Mechanical Sensors Fabricated with Graphene Oxide-Coated Commercial Silk.

Many studies on flexible strain and pressure sensors have been reported due to growing interest in wearable devices for healthcare purposes. Here, we present flexible pressure and strain (motion) sensors prepared with only graphene oxide (GO) and commercial silk fabrics and yarns. The pressure sensors were fabricated by simply dipping the silk fabric into GO solution followed by applying a thermal treatment at 400 °C to obtain reduced GO (rGO). The pressure sensors were made from rGO-coated fabrics, which were stacked in three, five, and seven layers. A super-sensitivity of 2.58 × 103 kPa-1 at low pressure was observed in the seven-layer pressure sensor. The strain sensors were obtained from rGO-coated twisted silk yarns whose gauge factor was 0.307. Although this value is small or comparable to the values for other sensors, it is appropriate for motion sensing. The results of this study show a cost-effective and simple method for the fabrication of pressure and motion sensors with commercial silk and GO.

Chemical Modification of Commercial Fabrics by Photoinduced Grafting Tannic Acid to Produce Antioxidant and Antibacterial Textiles

The goal of this study was to provide antioxidant and antibacterial properties to different types of fabrics via tannic acid (TA) covalent grafting. To that extent, TA was first methacrylated using glycidylmethacrylate. TA derivatives were characterized using infrared spectroscopy and 1H NMR to assess the degree of acrylation. Antioxidant and antibacterial properties of TA were preserved after chemical modification. The coating process was studied using infrared spectroscopy (IR), weight gain, and radical scavenging activity (RSA) measurements. To covalently bond TA to raw polypropylene (PP) and PP coated with chitosan, photoinduced grafting was performed. The process was optimized and resulted in fabrics with enough tannic acid to provide strong antioxidant activity, with RSA ranging at 95%. The antibacterial activity was assessed against E. coli and S. aureus, the main strains responsible for nosocomial infections. Results revealed a substantial reduction of bacterial contamination for PP samples coated with chitosan, with stronger activity against E. coli, attributed to hydrophobic repellence. This study highlights the benefits of using tannic acid to obtain antioxidant and antibacterial fabrics.

Capillary Condensation Mediated Fluidic Straining for Enhanced Bacterial Inactivation

AbstractBiomaterials capable of continuously inactivating pathogens are essential for suppressing transmission of infectious diseases, such as epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis and pulmonary tuberculosis. Here, capillary condensation of air moisture within nano‐confined spaces between superhydrophilic rigid nanorods is shown and target microbiology spontaneously stretch and inactivate aerosolized microorganisms. Specifically, the negative Gaussian curvature‐shaped water condensate causes fluidic straining, comprising surface tension and Laplace pressure, strong enough to deform and eliminate the selected bacteria. Plate counting quantifies the sharply reduced contact‐killing period for superhydrophilic and bare nanorods (6 vs 100 min for E. coli, 20 vs 120 min for S. aureus) under relative humidity of 70%. Theoretical calculations and experimental studies indicate increased mechanical straining and mechano‐bactericidal by improving air moisture content. To further illustrate utility, long‐term antibacterial medical masks are fabricated by integrating such nanorods onto commercial fabrics. Collectively, these findings highlight the immense potential of capillary condensation‐induced fluidic straining as an eco‐friendly, broad‐spectrum, and highly efficient antibacterial strategy.

Construction of thermally conductive and insulating fibers of BN nanosheet/aramid nanofiber composites with high-temperature resistance via sol-gel wet spinning

With the intensification of global warming and the occurrence of extremely hot weather, there is an urgent need for textiles that can effectively regulate temperature. Using amino-functionalized boron nitride nanosheets (K-BNNSs) and aramid nanofibers (ANFs) as materials, the well-oriented thermally conductive insulating textile fibers with “lotus root” structure were directly prepared by sol–gel wet spinning process. The axial thermal conductivity of a single fiber can be as high as 22.4 W/(m·K), and has an excellent tensile fracture strength (176.6 MPa). Thermal infrared imaging revealed that the fibers woven into textiles had a more significant heat dissipation capacity than commercial cotton fabrics. The fiber obtained by this low-cost preparation method provides a cooling textile with excellent heat-dissipation ability and has wide application prospects in emerging textiles.

RGO/ANFs composite fibers with dual functions of thermal conductivity and electromagnetic shielding of lotus root structure based on sol-gel wet spinning

Textiles that exhibit electromagnetic shielding and high thermal conductivities are valuable materials. Graphene is considered the best candidate material because of its excellent thermal and electrical conductivities. However, there is a challenge that the strong interaction between the layers is easy to aggregate and affect the mechanical properties. At present, the graft modification of graphene can effectively improve its dispersion in solvents. Herein, we fabricate highly oriented composite fibers with “lotus root” structures via sol-gel wet spinning using graphene and aramid nanofiber (ANF) raw materials. The reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/ANFs composite fibers (50RGO/ANF-Ca2+-0.5) exhibit an excellent tensile fracture strength (304.05 MPa). The axial thermal conductivity of a single fiber is 30.42 W/(m·K) due to its highly oriented structure along the axis and dense three-dimensional network structure inside. Thermal infrared imaging shows that the 50RGO/ANF-Ca2+-0.5 textile has a higher surface temperature of 1.1 °C than commercial cotton fabric on human skin, and has a more significant heat dissipation capacity. The 50RGO/ANF-Ca2+-0.5 textiles exhibit electromagnetic shielding efficiencies of up to 49.8 dB. The composite fiber obtained via this low-cost preparation method endows textile with dual functions of thermal conductivity and electromagnetic shielding and has wide application prospects in emerging textiles.

Dehydrated Biomimetic Membranes with Skinlike Structure and Function.

Novel vapor-permeable materials are sought after for applications in protective wear, energy generation, and water treatment. Current impermeable protective materials effectively block harmful agents but trap heat due to poor water vapor transfer. Here we present a new class of materials, vapor permeable dehydrated nanoporous biomimetic membranes (DBMs), based on channel proteins. This application for biomimetic membranes is unexpected as channel proteins and biomimetic membranes were assumed to be unstable under dry conditions. DBMs mimic human skin's structure to offer both high vapor transport and small molecule exclusion under dry conditions. DBMs feature highly organized pores resembling sweat pores in human skin, but at super high densities (>1012 pores/cm2). These DBMs achieved exceptional water vapor transport rates, surpassing commercial breathable fabrics by up to 6.2 times, despite containing >2 orders of magnitude smaller pores (1 nm vs >700 nm). These DBMs effectively excluded model biological agents and harmful chemicals both in liquid and vapor phases, again in contrast with the commercial breathable fabrics. Remarkably, while hydrated biomimetic membranes were highly permeable to liquid water, they exhibited higher water resistances after dehydration at values >38 times that of commercial breathable fabrics. Molecular dynamics simulations support our hypothesis that dehydration induced protein hydrophobicity increases which enhanced DBM performance. DBMs hold promise for various applications, including membrane distillation, dehumidification, and protective barriers for atmospheric water harvesting materials.

Mechanical Properties of Woven Fabrics Containing Elastane Fibers

Woven fabrics generally have high strength but only limited stretch. This lack of stretch can be overcome by incorporating elastane fibers into the fabric structure. These stretch woven fabrics offer an interesting potential for tight-fitting garments. However, the presence of the elastane fibers may lower the strength of the fabrics. To expand the knowledge on the mechanical behavior of stretch woven fabrics, this study investigated eight commercial fabrics with elastane fiber content between 5 and 51%. Four fabrics were polyester-based and the other four were polyamide-based. The effect of the fabric weight and elastane fiber content on the grab strength, tear strength, and unrecovered stretch was analyzed. It was observed that, at very high elastane fiber content, the load–extension curve was typical to that of an elastane fiber, while the traditional load–extension behavior of woven fabrics with low to average stretch was obtained at lower elastane fiber contents. For the polyester-based fabrics, the grab strength and tear strength generally increased with fabric weight and decreased with elastane fiber content. For the polyamide-based fabrics, a higher elastane fiber content led to a decrease in grab strength, tear strength, and unrecovered stretch. A reduction in tear strength was observed at higher fabric weight.

Preliminary investigation of the effect of artificial sweat on a wearable textile sensing system

Introduction Textile wearable systems for human movement monitoring are increasingly popular. However, few examples report on robustness to sweat, which is relevant for use in real life. Some reported the effect of artificial sweat like phosphate buffered saline (PBS; Lin et al., 2022) or simply moisture (Xu et al., 2020) on custom materials. We previously developed an all-textile wireless sensing platform with commercial conductive yarns and fabrics containing silver. There is no study on the effect of sweat on such materials, therefore we performed a preliminary study to account for moisture and potential oxydation of silver. Methods The textile sensing system is resonating RLC circuit, where the sensing part is a capacitive parallel plate strain sensor (C) located on a joint (knee). All components are textile based and contain silver. As the capacitive sensor stretches, capacitance increases and the resonance of the circuit fres decreases. This information is transmitted wirelessly via inductive coupling (Galli et al., 2023). We sprayed 1 ml of 0.1 M PBS solution on the textile capacitive sensor to simulate sweating, and applied mechanical strain before (damp state) and after air drying (dry state). The unmodified sensor (before the addition of any PBS) was also used as a baseline measure. First, we applied fixed strain (10%) with a universal testing machine; then, we tested the response of the sensorized pants when bending the knee. Results The resonance frequency of the textile sensing (RLC) circuit in the damp state was much lower than the baseline (14.85 ± 0.11 MHz vs 22.70 ± 0.12 MHz) as expected from the higher dielectric constant of water that increases the baseline capacitance of the sensor. As for the change in Δfres upon 10% strain (Δfres = fres,baseline - fres,stretch), interestingly a larger change was observed for the damp configuration as compared to the baseline and dried (1.08 ± 0.08 vs 0.79 ± 0.06 vs 0.66 ± 0.03 MHz). A similar behaviour was observed in the test with pants, where the response for flexion was Δfres = 1.58 MHz for the damp sensor and Δfres = 1.28 MHz for the dried sensor. Discussion/Conclusion This preliminary investigation showed promising results in terms of robustness of our system to artificial sweat, as there was a measurable response both in the damp and dried configurations. Further tests with different sweat amounts and rate are needed to determine the full functioning range, e.g., how much sweat is tolerated.

High-response room-temperature NO2 gas sensor fabricated with thermally reduced graphene oxide-coated commercial cotton fabric

Electronic textile-based gas sensors with a high response for NO2 gas were fabricated using reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-coated commercial cotton fabric (rGOC). Graphene oxide (GO) was coated on cotton fabric by simply dipping the cotton into a GO solution. To investigate the relationship between the degree of reduction and the sensing response, the GO-coated fabrics were thermally reduced at various temperatures (190, 200, 300, and 400 °C). The change in the amount of oxygen functional groups on the rGOCs was observed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction patterns. The maximum sensing response of 45.90 % at 10 ppm of NO2 gas at room temperature was exhibited by the rGOC treated at 190 °C, which was the lowest heat-treatment temperature. The high response comes from the greater amount of oxygen functional groups compared to other rGOC samples, and the tubular structure of the cotton.

A systematic review of released nano-particles from commercial nano-textiles during use and washing

The increasing demand for durable, eco-friendly clothing has led to the use of nanomaterials in textiles. However, concerns arise about the impact of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). Studies have explored nanoparticle release from textiles during usage and washing. However, the existing data is fragmented, and a comprehensive grasp is absent. A systematic review is required to consolidate existing evidence and offer a thorough analysis of nanoparticle release from nano-enhanced textiles in commercial use and washing. This review assess the research aims to concerning the release of nanomaterials from commercial textiles during usage and laundering. The process involved defining objectives, crafting a search strategy, utilizing databases, and applying inclusion/exclusion criteria. After deduplication, articles were screened for eligibility, covering nanoparticle characteristics and release mechanisms. Searches spanned Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science, using keywords like “Nano,” “Nanoparticles,” etc. Original articles on nanomaterial release from conventional textiles were included. Out of 1549 articles identified, and met the criteria for inclusion in the study. The results reveal that textiles employing nanotechnology can indeed release a significant quantity of nanoparticles. The characteristics of these released particles, including their quantity and composition, are influenced by various factors such as nanoparticle structure, adhesive properties, fabric type, and environmental interactions. While there exist variations between laboratory simulations and real-world conditions, these findings underscore potential risks associated with nanoparticle release, underscoring the necessity for toxicological assessments and additional research into particle behavior, particularly emphasizing the functional aspects of fibers and the environmental impact following nanoparticle release after washing.