Technical textiles, also known as tech textiles, are revolutionizing various industries with their extraordinary functional attributes. These advanced materials are designed to perform under extreme conditions, offering unmatched durability, strength, and versatility. As technology continues to evolve, technical textiles are set to become even more integral to our daily lives and numerous professional fields.
Here’s a deep dive into the exciting future and immense importance of technical textiles.
REVOLUTIONIZING WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES
Smart Clothing: The Next Frontier
Imagine clothes that do more than just cover your body—they monitor your health, enhance your athletic performance, and even adjust to temperature changes. Smart clothing integrates sensors and electronic components into the fabric, transforming ordinary apparel into high-tech gear. From fitness trackers embedded in shirts to jackets that adjust their insulation based on the weather, the possibilities are endless. These innovations are not only exciting but also have the potential to significantly improve our quality of life.
Medical Marvels: Life-Saving Textiles
Technical textiles are at the forefront of medical innovation. Smart bandages that monitor wound healing, compression garments that regulate blood flow, and fabrics that release medication directly onto the skin are just a few examples. These advancements can lead to faster recovery times, better patient outcomes, and more efficient healthcare systems. The integration of nanotechnology enhances these capabilities, making textiles an indispensable part of modern medicine.
Sustainable Innovations: Eco-Friendly Technical Textiles
The push towards sustainability is transforming the technical textiles industry. Innovations in biodegradable and recyclable materials are reducing the environmental impact of textiles. Fibers made from recycled plastics, organic cotton, and hemp are becoming more common, offering the same high performance without compromising the planet. The development of sustainable dyes and manufacturing processes further reduces the ecological footprint of the textile industry.
Circular Economy: Reducing Waste
The concept of a circular economy is gaining traction in the textiles industry. This involves designing products with their end-of-life in mind, ensuring that materials can be reused, recycled, or composted. Technical textiles are being engineered to maintain their properties through multiple lifecycles, minimizing waste and promoting sustainability.
TECHNICAL TEXTILES: A CLOSER LOOK
Technical textiles are engineered to meet specific performance criteria, making them ideal for a wide range of applications. They are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions, resist chemicals, and offer high strength and flammability resistance. These superior attributes make technical textiles widely used in industries such as automotive, construction, healthcare, and sports.
CUTTING-EDGE APPLICATIONS: TRANSFORMING INDUSTRIES
Technical textiles are essential in creating products that require durability, enhanced performance, and specialized functionalities. They are utilized in numerous sectors, including:
Automotive Innovations: Lighter and Stronger
In the automotive industry, technical textiles are making vehicles lighter, stronger, and more fuel-efficient. High-performance materials are used in seat fabrics, airbags, and even the structural components of cars. These textiles not only enhance safety and comfort but also contribute to better fuel economy and reduced emissions.
Aerospace Advancements: Reaching New Heights
Technical textiles are essential in the aerospace sector, where materials must withstand extreme conditions. From heat-resistant fabrics used in spacecraft to lightweight composites in aircraft, these advanced textiles are critical for ensuring safety, efficiency, and performance. The continuous development of new materials is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in aerospace engineering.
Healthcare Innovations: Elevating Patient Care
Technical textiles are transforming the healthcare industry by enhancing hygiene products, wound care, implants, and protective clothing. In hygiene, they are used in disposable products like diapers and sanitary napkins, offering superior absorbency and infection control. For wound care, these textiles provide advanced dressings and bandages with antimicrobial properties that promote healing. In implants, biocompatible textiles ensure successful integration with the human body, supporting tissue regeneration and functionality. Protective clothing made from technical textiles offers essential barrier protection for healthcare workers and patients, combining comfort and durability. The continuous advancement in medical textiles is elevating patient care and safety to new heights.
Sports and Outdoor Gear: Enhanced Performance
Athletes and outdoor enthusiasts benefit greatly from technical textiles. High-performance sportswear enhances athletic performance by regulating temperature, wicking away moisture, and providing support.
Outdoor gear made from technical textiles offers superior protection against the elements, ensuring comfort and safety in extreme conditions. Innovations in smart fabrics are further enhancing the capabilities of sports and outdoor gear.
By leveraging advanced materials and innovative manufacturing processes, technical textiles continue to revolutionize industries, providing solutions that meet the demanding requirements of modern applications.
INNOVATIONS IN TECHNICAL TEXTILES: NON-WOVEN SURFACES
One of the fastest-growing segments in the technical textiles industry is non-woven surfaces. These products are created by bonding fibers that have not been spun into yarn, resulting in high-performance materials that offer unique benefits for a wide range of applications. Non-woven textiles are used in medical, hygiene, automotive, and construction applications due to their versatility and high performance.
MATERIALS USED IN TECHNICAL TEXTILES
Technical textiles are produced from a variety of materials, including both synthetic and natural fibers.
Common synthetic fibers used include:
Polypropylene: Known for its chemical resistance and durability, often used in industrial applications.
Polyester: Highly durable and resistant to shrinking and stretching, used in a variety of technical applications.
Viscose: A versatile fiber with excellent absorbency and comfort, used in hygiene products and medical textiles.
Nylon: Noted for its high strength and resistance to abrasion, commonly used in industrial and performance apparel.
Glass: Used for its thermal and dimensional stability, often in composites and insulation materials.
Aramid: High-performance fibers known for their strength and heat resistance, used in protective clothing and composites.
Natural and pure fibers also play a significant role in technical textile production, including:
Jute: A strong, biodegradable fiber used in packaging and agricultural applications.
Linen: Known for its strength and comfort, used in a variety of technical and apparel applications.
Hemp: Durable and environmentally friendly, used in composites and textiles.
Coconut: Fibers used for their durability and natural properties in geotextiles and composites.
Ramie: A strong, absorbent fiber used in apparel and technical textiles.
Alpaca: Known for its thermal properties and softness, used in high-performance apparel.
NANOTECHNOLOGY: THE TINY GIANT OF TECHNICAL TEXTILES
In case of the “bottom-up” approach, the different type of materials and the instruments are made up from different types of molecular components which combine themselves by chemical ways basing on the mechanism of molecular recognition. In case of the “top-down” approaches, various nano-objects are made from various types of components without atomic-level control.
Materials reduced to the nanoscale can show different properties compared to what they exhibit on a macro scale, enabling unique applications. The basic premise is that properties can dramatically change when a substance’s size is reduced to the nanometer range. For instance, ceramics which are normally brittle can be deformable when their size is reduced, opaque substances become transparent (copper); stable materials turn combustible (aluminum); insoluble materials become soluble (gold) (Sherman, 2003; Burniston et al., 2004).
Usually seen as an industrial revolution, nanotechnology is a developing interdisciplinary technology. Nanotechnology deals with materials that have a length of 1-100 nm. Nanotechnology's fundamentals are that when its dimensions are lessened to the nanometer scale, the material's characteristics change drastically. The textile industry has discovered nanotechnology's possibilities now. It is utilized for developing the required textile properties, like antimicrobial characteristics, fire retardancy, water repellency, durability, soft hand, remarkable surface structure, high tensile strength, and such. Currently, spacesuits and sportswear are one of the rapidly increasing segments in nanotechnology's applications. Sharkskin suit based on a plasma layer improved technology is most famous all over the world as it aids in trouble-free gliding through the water. Even in the industry of healthcare, nano-textiles are a common sight as they are in form of surgical gowns and gloves.
CARBON NANOTUBES
Carbon Nanotube is a tubular form of carbon with diameter as small as nanometer (nm). A carbon nanotube (CNT) is configurationally equivalent to a two dimensional graphene sheet rolled into a tube. They can be metallic or semiconducting, depending on chirality.CNT are one of the most promising materials due to their high strength and high electrical conductivity. CNT consists of tiny shell(s) of graphite rolled up into a cylinder(s) (Wang et al., 2004; Daoud and Xin, 2004).
CNT exhibit 100 times the tensile strength of steel at one-sixth weight, thermal conductivity better than all but the purest diamond, and an electrical conductivity similar to copper, but with the ability to carry much higher currents.
The potential applications of CNTs include conductive and high-strength composite fibers, energy storage and energy conversion devices, sensors, and field emission displays.
Possible applications include screen displays, sensors, aircraft structures, explosion-proof blankets and electromagnetic shielding. The composite fibers have potential applications in safety harnesses, explosion- proof blankets, and electromagnetic shielding applications. Continuing research activities on CNT fibers involve study of different fibre polymer matrices such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polyacrylonitrile (PNA) as well as CNT dispersion and orientation in polymers (Scott and Holly, 2007; Wang et al., 2004).
NANOTECHNOLOGY’S MODERN APPLICATIONS IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Water Repellence: Stay Dry Anywhere
Nanotechnology is bringing new levels of water repellence to textiles. Inspired by the lotus leaf, super-hydrophobic surfaces prevent water from penetrating the fabric. This technology is perfect for outdoor clothing, tents, and gear, ensuring you stay dry no matter the weather. The self-cleaning properties of these textiles also make them ideal for a wide range of applications.
Water repellent technologies have evolved a great extent since being introduced to the textile industry. The basis of achieving water repellent property to textiles is ‘hydrophobicity’, which means ‘fear of water’ or ‘lack of affinity for water’. Water repellency is achieved by lowering the surface energy of the fabric so that water will “bead” on the surface and won’t “wet out” the fabric (or garment).
Hydrophobicity
As the word suggests, hydrophobicity means ‘fear’ or repulsion for water. Contact angle is the main parameter in determining hydrophobicity of any surface. Contact angle is an angle at which the liquid-vapour interface meets the solid-liquid interface. Higher the contact angle, lesser the water droplet’s contact with the surface, greater is the hydrophobicity of the surface, and so the surface is ‘water repellent’.
The Lotus Leaf Effect
Lotus leaves have unprecedented capability of rolling of water droplets off its surface by virtue of ‘super-hydrophobicity’.
The fine architecture on the leaf surface, which results from the coexistence of micro-sized papillae (10-20 µm in height and 10-15 µm in width), nanoscale hair-like structures and a hydrophobic waxy cover all over, physically minimizes the droplet’s adhesion to that surface. Several fabric finishes have been developed mimicking the ‘lotus effect’ and achieving high water repellency along with ‘self-cleaning’ attributes. As the water drops rolls off such highly water repellent surfaces, the dirt particles and other impurities on the surface are carried along.
UV Protection: Shielding from the Sun
With increasing awareness of the harmful effects of UV radiation, UV-protective textiles are becoming more important. Nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are used to block harmful UV rays, making clothing safer for outdoor activities. This technology is crucial for sportswear, outdoor gear, and everyday apparel, providing effective protection without sacrificing comfort.
Inorganic UV blockers are more preferable to organic UV blockers as they are non-toxic and chemically stable under exposure to both high temperatures and UV (Yang et al., 2004; El-Molla et al., 2011). Inorganic UV blockers are usually certain semiconductor oxides such as TiO2, ZnO, SiO2 and Al2O3. Among these semiconductor oxides, titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are commonly used. It was determined that nano-sized titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are more efficient at absorbing and scattering UV radiation than the conventional size, and are thus better to provide protection against UV rays . This is due to the fact that nanoparticles have a larger surface area per unit mass and volume than the conventional materials, leading to the increase of the effectiveness of blocking UV radiation.
Clothing covers an extensive surface area of our skin which is permanently exposed to environmental stresses including UV radiation. However, all types of clothing are not effective to prevent environmental hazards. When, UV radiation falls on the clothing surface, it can be divided into mainly three parts viz. transmission, absorption and reflection/scattering. In order to make an effective UV protective clothing, garment should not allow transmission of UV radiation through the fabrics. These could be achieved by absorption and reflection/scattering of UV radiation by the clothing surface. Ordinary clothing which is porous in nature, and do not provide enough protection against UV radiation transmission. UV radiation protection of fabric depends on several factors which includes fiber & yarn type, weave, color, fabric construction factor, finishing type, presence of UV absorber in textile materials etc. Singh and Singh reported UV protection effect of various filament configurations viz. twisted, flat, intermingled, and textured in multifilament yarns. Yarn structure i.e. fibre packing has played a significant role on UV protection of fabrics. Inter yarn stices and the macroporosity of yarns and fabrics are major factors which can influence the UV transmission of fabrics. Their study revealed that combination of intermingled warp with flat, intermingled and textured weft provided excellent ultra violet radiation protection at 22.5 g/cm2 fabric areal density. Whereas, presence of twisted yarn has been reduced the UV protection due to the increased openness of fabric structure
Antimicrobial Textiles: Fighting Infections
The use of antimicrobial nanoparticles, such as silver, in textiles helps prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi. This is particularly important in medical settings, sportswear, and everyday clothing. Antimicrobial textiles reduce the risk of infections, odors, and skin irritations, enhancing hygiene and comfort.
Among the most primitive antimicrobial nanoparticles used over textile surfaces is silver (Ag). It acts as a doping antimicrobial agent, and reveals to have outstanding antimicrobial activity without changing its mechanical properties . Ag nanoparticles being very small in size, contains a very high surface area which eventually helps them to interact with bacterial proteins and inhibits their cell growth. Ag nanoparticles also interfere with the electron and substrate transport system . The Ag+ ions produced on reacting with moisture, diffuse fast across the cell wall and cell membrane and reach into the cytoplasm.
Although many antimicrobial agents are already in used for textile, the major classes of antimicrobial for textile include organo-silicones, organo-metallics, phenols and quaternary ammonium salts. The bis- phenolic compounds exhibits a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. For imparting antibacterial properties, nano sized silver, titanium dioxide,zinc oxide, triclosan and chitosan are used (Burniston et al., 2004).
Nano-silver particles have an extremely large relative surface area, thus increasing their contact with bacteria or fungi and vastly improving their bactericidal and fungicidal effectiveness. Nano-silver is very reactive with protein and shows antimicrobial properties at concentrations as low as 0.0003 to 0.0005%. When contacting bacteria and fungi, it will adversely affect cellular metabolism and inhibits cell growth. It also suppresses respiration, the basal metabolism of the electron transfer system, and the transport of the substrate into the microbial cell membrane (Wong et al., 2006). Furthermore, it inhibits the multiplication and growth of those bacteria and fungi which cause infection, odour, itchiness and sores (Yang et al., 2003).
THE LIMITLESS POTENTIAL OF TECHNICAL TEXTILES
The future of technical textiles is incredibly promising, with ongoing research and development opening up new possibilities every day. From smart fabrics that interact with their environment to sustainable materials that help protect our planet, the advancements in technical textiles are set to transform industries and improve lives.
As we continue to explore the potential of these innovative materials, the importance of technical textiles in our world will only continue to grow.
References
Mesut ÇİÇEK, Mayıs 2015, Wearable Technologies And Its Future Applications, Washington State University
5 Lucy E. Dunne, Wearable Technology, Published in the Britannica Book of the 2014,
Hicran ÖZGÜNER KILIÇ, Kasım 2017, Giyilebilir Teknoloji Ürünleri Pazarı ve Kullanım Alanları, KarabüK Üniversitesi, https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/aksarayiibd/issue/35013/389593
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