Researchers have developed a new method to recycle old clothes and create sustainable textiles. The method involves chemically breaking down old clothing and reusing the polyester compounds to create functional coatings that can be applied to clothing and fabrics. The new system offers hope for the non-sustainable textile, clothing and footwear industry.
Researchers at Cornell University in the United States have developed a new method to recycle old clothes and create sustainable textiles. The method involves chemically breaking down old clothes and reusing the polyester compounds to create flame-retardant, anti-bacterial, or wrinkle-resistant coatings that can be applied to clothing and fabrics. As part of this process, textiles are cut into pieces and chemically broken down into a mixture of raw materials, dyes, additives, dirt and esters.
A metal solution is added to the building blocks of polyester and bonded to the steel, creating small spaces called metal-organic frameworks that fall to the bottom of the mixture, Krishna Ramanujan wrote in the journal. Cornell Chronicle. These spaces can be used to create coatings, which can be customized for different uses such as permanent coatings for permanent media shirts, antibacterial coatings for surgical or cleaning gowns, or is a fire blanket for protective clothing. This process is known as controlled crystallization and has proven to be effective regardless of impurities in color and composition.
Textile, clothing and footwear industries produce 20% of the world's solid waste, and many so-called recyclers throw away clothes in countries in Asia and Africa. The new system offers hope for these unsustainable companies by participating in the circular economy.
"One of the goals of my laboratory is to create a universal coating that will serve all these purposes, although we are still far from that," said Juan Hinestroza, Rebecca Q. said Morgan '60 Professor of Fiber Science and Design. Clothing designer and director of the Textile Nanotechnology Laboratory at the College of Human Ecology.
Titled "Upcycling of Dyed Polyester Fabrics into Copper-1, 4-Benzeedicarboxylate Metal-Organic Frameworks," the study was published in the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research and was supported by the National Science Foundation. It was written by Yelin Ko, a PhD student in human development; Phillip Milner Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology; and Tyler Azbell, a doctoral student in Milner's lab.
The findings of the study can have a significant impact on the fashion industry and the environment, providing a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to textile production.
