Despite the ubiquity of intertwined materials, scientists struggled to understand their mechanics and to predict the shapes that they adopt at rest. But now, researchers have come up with a simplified description of the mechanical properties of these materials that helps to infer how they behave.
You could soon power your garment gizmos without unfashionably toting around a solid bulky battery. In a significant development for wearable technology, a collaborative team of researchers has developed a process to print a textile energy grid that can be charged wirelessly.
Scientists have developed a new fibre fragmentation scale which, if adopted by industry, could be displayed on clothing labels, similar to the way many food manufacturers display calorie information on packaging.
Technical textiles for construction sector can now use waste carpet material and other discarded textiles including clothing fabrics and firefighting uniforms to make concrete stronger. Field trials are on.
A research group, led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has come up with an ordinary silk thread, coated with a conductive plastic material, that shows promising properties for turning textiles into electricity generators.
Researchers from Japan’s University of Fukui have optimised a decolorisation process which effectively penetrates fabric fibres to remove the dyes with minimal environmental impact. The extracted dyes can be reused, and the fabrics be redyed.
Researchers have identified a type of sustainable glitter that has no impact on the environment. It is made from novel cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) which is extracted from biological sources including cotton.
US researchers have come up with a method to decompose and recycle old polyester textiles to create an alternative to the carcinogenic fluorinated finishes, also known as ‘forever chemicals’.
Scientists in the US have drawn inspiration from the dynamic colour-changing properties of squid skin and developed a new fabric that allows for user-adjusted warmth, breathability, and washability.
Biomimicry to the fore again as Chinese scientists, inspired by the water-collecting abilities of desert beetles and spider silk, develop a yarn capable of harvesting water from fog, providing an innovative solution to water scarcity in arid regions.
