Journal of Industrial Textiles

Textile materials can be easily used as a support for the nano-decoration with active particles in order to gain new features such as self-cleaning, antimicrobial efficiency, water repellency, mechanical strength, color change and protection against ultraviolet radiations. In this context, our present research reports the fabrication and characterization (physico-chemical analysis and surface morphology) of cotton fabrics treated with reduced graphene oxide decorated with two types of TiO₂ nanoparticles co-doped with 1% iron and nitrogen atoms (TiO₂/rGO NPs) and synthesized in different hydrothermal conditions by a simultaneous precipitation of Ti³⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions to achieve their uniform distribution or after a sequential precipitation of these two cations for obtaining a higher concentration of iron on the surface of Ti⁴⁺ oxyhydroxide. Further, the antimicrobial efficiency of these TiO₂/rGO-treated textiles and their influence on human cells were assessed. We demonstrated the successful development of TiO₂/rGO coating of cotton fabrics which are harmless for human skin cells and inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis. These findings confirm their great potential as novel graphene-based materials for biomedical and photocatalytic applications and this approach could be used for the large-scale fabrication of innovative self-cleaning and antimicrobial textiles.

Areva javanica (AJ), a natural cotton flowers fiber of Amaranthaceae family was taken up for the study of its possible utilization in a friction composite. The chemical composition of Areva javanica fiber (AJF) such as cellulose, lignin, ash, moisture, wax content, and density was evaluated. In addition to these, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) tests were performed. The surface roughness of AJ fiber was estimated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the statistical analysis using Weibull distribution was carried out to identify the diameter of AJ fiber. TGA studies revealed its moderate thermal resistance upto 219℃, and a density of 1.4005 g/cc was estimated of AJF. An attempt was made to make use of the AJF as a potential reinforcement material for acrylic fibers in an organic disc brake pad formulation. Upon fibrization, AJ fibrillates and forms a dense structure, a vital property required for the production of a brake pad. The role of AJ fiber in brake pad was studied by investigating the behavior of fibers from the mixing stage to the cured brake pad. Results revealed that the developed brake pad had a density of 2.01 g/cc, hardness HRS 91, Loss on ignition 21.68%, and cold and hot shear strengths of 44 and 27 kg/cm², respectively. These values were very close to that of an Acrylic fiber based brake pad. The wear test using Friction Assessment and Screening test (FAST) gave the wear percentage of 0.0187 in³/Hp-h which was found to be 16% higher than AJF (0.0159 in³/Hp-hr) based brake pad.

Coated fabrics are widely used in tension structures. In order to investigate the tensile behaviors of the coated fabrics, one group of specimens was cut out from multi-axial warp-knitted polyester fabrics coated with polyurethane on one side. These failure strengths of polyurethane-coated multi-axial warp-knitted fabrics were obtained by the method of uniaxial tensile test and a failure stress criterion is presented for the kind of materials. The results show that the coated fabric is anisotropic material, and the coating has great influence on the mechanical properties of the material. Furthermore, the failure stress criterion can be used for references in material design and application.

In this study, the application of textile fabrics coated with biodegradable bioactive alginate film was investigated, which was obtained from natural polysaccharides such as sodium alginate extracted from sargassum wightii and padina tetrastromatica seaweeds. The functional groups present in the bioactive substances of alginate film coated fabrics was assessed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of alginate film coated fabrics were assessed using DPPH free radical scavenging and EN ISO 20645 test methods, respectively. The effect of coatings on biomaterials was evaluated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and the effect of alginate film coated fabrics on comfort properties such as thickness, air permeability, wickability, flexural stiffness, and wettability was studied. The experimental result specifies that the maximum antioxidant activity of 54 ± 0.98% inhibition was achieved and maximum antibacterial activity was attained with the inhibition zone of 44 mm in alginate film coated textile fabrics. The air permeability, flexural stiffness, wettability, and wickability properties were slightly affected in both coated textile fabrics compared with uncoated fabric. The sargassum wightii alginate film coated textile fabric showed 80% of wound healing activity compared with padina tetrastromatica alginate film coated textile fabric. This alginate film coated textile fabrics are preferably suitable for nonimplantable materials such as wound healing, skin grafts, food industry, pharmaceutical industry, and hygienic textiles.

This research was carried out to investigate behaviour of a knitted orthopaedic knee support in simulated real conditions as well as to propose a new approach to compression evaluation to preclude the possibility of any error in designing of new orthopaedic supports with exact compression level. Fully finished supports with all additional non-textile elements were analysed in this research. The support is defined as a corrective or orthopaedic item intended to grip or support any movable part of the body in the correct position and allows movement of that body part. The ways how textile material deforms under applied stresses as well as relaxation processes over the time play an important role in its processing and end use. A strong linear dependence between elongation of the support and compression generated by the support was found in this research. However, investigation on stress relaxation over the time showed that stress decrease over 36,000 s coincides with ranges of one full compression class, and the highest change (approx. 50%) in tensile force occurs during the first 100–200 s of relaxation. Such a change of compression has significant influence on the predictive pressure value generated by the compression garment and undermines its functionality. The obtained results indicate that a new approach to compression evaluation methodology must be adopted for theoretical compression value computation. Consequently, evaluation of the compression according to the tensile force must be performed not earlier than after at least 120 s relaxation.

In this study, a composite plain material is composed of woven fabrics containing metal wire with shielding ability and polyester filament that can provide flexibility and far-infrared emissivity. Furthermore, a wrapping process is used to form metal/far-infrared–polyester wrapped yarns, which are then made into metal/far-infrared–polyester woven fabrics. The effects of using stainless steel wire, Cu (copper) wire, or Ni–Cu (nickel-coated copper) wire on the wrapped yarns and woven fabrics are examined in terms of tensile properties, electrical properties, and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. Moreover, SS+Cu+Ni-Cu woven fabrics have maximum tensile strength, while SS+Ni-Cu woven fabrics have the maximum elongation and SS+Cu+Ni-Cu woven fabrics have the lowest surface resistivity. Stainless steel composite woven fabrics have far-infrared emissivity of 0.89 when they are composed of double layers. electromagnetic shielding effectiveness test results indicate that changing the number of lamination layers and lamination angle has a positive influence on electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of woven fabrics. In particular, SS+Cu+Ni-Cu woven fabrics exhibit electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of −50 dB at a frequency of 2000–3000 MHz when they are laminated with three layers at 90°.

In this research, eight different 3D weft-knitted fabrics were developed and evaluated. 3D fabrics have been knitted on circular weft-knitting machines with two different gauges: 20E gauge and 28E gauge. Three different raw materials were used for the fabric’s production: high molecular mass polyethylene (HPPE) yarn and 0.05 mm diameter steel wire in the outer layers (for the front and reverse) and polyamide yarn in the binding layer. The experiments were conducted on the developed 3D knitted fabrics to determine the fabric’s resistance to mechanical risks such as circular blade cut, puncture, abrasion, and also to evaluate the comfort parameter, such as air permeability. It was defined that 3D weft-knitted fabrics best results on tests: circular blade cut, puncture and abrasion resistant were achieved using HPPE yarn twisted with steel wire, higher mass per unit area with more significant amount of steel wire. According to the standard EN 388:2003, three samples of developed 3D weft-knitted fabrics had the highest 5th blade cut and the highest (4th) abrasion resistance level. All of them had the highest (4th) level of puncture resistance. 3D fabrics knitted on a circular weft-knitting machine of gauge 28E ensured 1.3–2.1 times greater blade cut and 4.9–12.1 times greater abrasion resistance result, than fabrics knitted on gauge 20E, due to a higher stitch density, higher mass per unit area, density and fabric’s thickness. But on the other hand, these parameters lowered air permeability by 20.2–43.0%.

Polyester fabrics are coated uniformly by nickel thin film nanostructure with 200 nm thickness by electroless plating method. This study investigates the effect of saccharin as an additive in plating solution, on the morphology, grain size, crystallinity, surface resistivity, and magnetic properties of the coated fabrics which influences the microwave shielding strongly. The morphology changes from spheroid to blade shape with an average grain size of 85 ± 10 nm and the surface resistivity reached to its lowest value in 5 g l⁻¹ saccharin concentration. It has been seen that the crystallinity is modified and the magnetic behavior becomes softer in the presence of the additive. The measurements on microwave shielding effect in 8.2–18 GHz frequency range exhibited 98–90 and 96–85% effective transmission loss (without and with the additive) by flexible and lightweight Ni-coated fabrics. The shielding effect becomes dominated by the absorption mechanism as higher eddy current loss, higher magnetic hysteresis loss, and shape anisotropy along blade shape nanostructure while saccharin is added to plating bath.