TEXTILES.ORG
One of the green R&D focuses of the EcoTextile Research Chair at CTT Group in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., Canada, is energy reduction. At Advanced Textiles Expo last November, researcher/chemist Ahmad Ibrahim, the holder of that position, spoke about work on photopolymerization and how it could be an energy-saving PFAS-free finish.
He gave the example of dentists using light to cure a polymer resin used on a filling; it’s fast, requires no water and is done at room temperature. By comparison, a traditional pad coating process that involves a water bath and drying and curing ovens takes a lot of energy, water and chemicals and is unsuitable for temperature-sensitive fabrics. A traditional finishing “train” could stretch more than 50 meters (164 feet) on a plant floor.
Using an LED light source to cure a finish would save an immense amount of energy and reduce carbon emissions. It even preserves stretchiness of spandex that is lost through traditional finishing techniques. The light-cured finish is superhydrophobic, and depending on the substrate, it could last 30–50 washings. Limits to the process are in its thickness and opacity.
The next work in this area will look at durability and scaling of the process.
See Specialty Fabrics Review‘s Swatches section every month for short stories covering news, ingenious projects and research.