Use of bacterial cellulose in the textile industry and the wettability challenge—a review

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been studied as an alternative material in several segments of the food, pharmaceutical, materials and textile industries. The importance of BC is linked to sustainability goals, since it is an easily degradable biomaterial of low toxicity to the environment and is a renewable raw material. For use in the textile area, bacterial cellulose has attracted great interest from researchers, but it presents some challenges notably to its hydrophilic structure. This integrative review article brings together studies and methods related to minimizing the hydrophilicity of bacterial cellulose, in order to expand its applicability in the textile industry in its dry state. The databases consulted were Scopus, ScienceDirect, ProQuest and Web of Science, the documents investigated were scientific articles and the time period investigated was between 2015 and 2021. The results showed that although there are methods to make the BC membrane more hydrophobic, future studies in this regard and on other properties must continue so that bacterial cellulose can be commercially introduced in the textile sector.

     

Adsorption of four non-ionic cellulose derivatives on cellulose model surfaces

The adsorption of four commercial non-ionic cellulose derivatives onto two different model surfaces of cellulose fibres has been studied with surface plasmon reflectance. The model surfaces of cellulose were ultrathin films of either nano fibrillated cellulose or regenerated cellulose on Au(s). Partial least squares models were used in the analysis of the data and it was found that the type of cellulose model surface seems to be most important for both the total adsorption and the initial adsorption rate of the studied cellulose derivatives. It is believed that this can be explained by morphological differences between the surfaces, and it was found that the properties of the cellulose derivatives that affect the adsorption of the two types of cellulose surface differ. For adsorption onto a NFC-based model surface, the type of cellulose derivative and the polydispersity index (PDI) of the cellulose derivative seem to be the two most important variables for the observed adsorption of these cellulose derivatives. For the regenerated cellulose surface the three most important variables are the M _n of the cellulose derivatives, the DS _NMR of the methyl celluloses, and PDI of the cellulose derivatives. Thus the adsorption of cellulose derivatives on the NFC-based cellulose model surface is strongly affected by the type of substituent, while the same cannot be said for a surface regenerated from N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide. Additionally, the DS _NMR of methyl celluloses affects their adsorption differently on the investigated cellulose model surfaces.     

Exemplar of Academia—Industry Interchange: The Department of Chemical Technology at Bombay University

Abstract

It was a textile industrialist's bequest that helped establish the Department of Chemical Technology at Bombay University in 1934, and there has been sustained and systematic use of the department's resources by industry ever since. Among other noteworthy features, the report of the university's academic council recommending the establishment of the department made a categorical distinction between technical education, designed to create skilled foremen, and technological education, oriented towards establishing a mode of thinking amongst future technologists. The paper's principal thesis is that the presence of the textile industry in Bombay allowed the funds for the establishment of the department to be made available. It also ensured a concentration of the curriculum and syllabus, in what was conceived to be an institution of technology in general, on the area of enquiry most relevant to the textile industry, textile chemistry. This effectively converted the department into an institution specialising in textile chemistry, later broadened into chemical technology.     

Possibilities for the Physical Modification of Cellulose Shapes Using Ionic Liquids

Summary: Functional cellulose shapes offer valuable properties for innovative application potentials in textile and medical products. Thereby excellent textile physiological properties of cellulose are allowed to be connected with novel application characteristics like bioactivity, electrical conductivity, heat storage or ability to adsorb liquids or gases. A very advantageous way to modify the properties of fibres, films or textile structures is to introduce particular additives via the Lyocell process. Regard to technical applications, functional additives will be able to incorporate themselves in the shape matrix and, in the case of using N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide monohydrate (NMMO) as solvent, implicate massive technological difficulties and deterioration of properties of the spinning dope. Beside a couple of limiting moments, ionic liquids (ILs) offer as direct solvents an excellent chance for physical modification of cellulose shapes. In contrast to NMMO, they exhibit a significantly higher thermal stability as well as a higher chemical resistance. ILs exhibit most widely a better dissolving capability for a number of different polymers. First results of the development of adsorber materials as well as novel bioactive fibres will be discussed and fibre characteristics will be given.     

Graft Copolymerization of Vinyl Monomers onto Cellulose and Cellulosic Materials

Abstract

Graft copolymerization is a novel method which has wide application in synthesizing new forms of polymeric materials and also in modifying the properties of natural polymers [1,2]. Much research has been done on grafting polymeric molecules on to cellulose to produce materials of new properties intermediate between those of cellulose and those of synthetics. A variety of property changes can be imparted to cellulose through grafting without destroying the crystallinity or crystallization potential of the substrate or reducing its melting point. Some of the most dramatic changes in properties which have been brought about by grafting to cellulose are viscoelasticity, stereoregularity, hygroscopicity, water repellency, improved adhesion to a variety of substances, settability, soil resistance, bacteriocidal properties, and thermal stability.     

Textile grade long natural cellulose fibers from bark of cotton stalks using steam explosion as a pretreatment

Textile grade long natural cellulose fibers with fineness of 27 dtex have been extracted from bark of cotton stalks by a combination of steam explosion, potassium hydroxide and peroxide treatments (explosion–KOH–H₂O₂). It was reported that natural cellulose fibers from bark of cotton stalks had significantly better mechanical properties than those from other lignocellulosic agricultural byproducts such as rice and wheat straws. Fibers from bark of cotton stalks were used to reinforce thermoplastic composites but could not be spun into yarns for textile applications due to their high fineness value (around 50 dtex) and/or low aspect ratio (around 660). In this research, barks of cotton stalks were treated using three methods, including steam explosion, a combination of steam explosion and potassium hydroxide treatments (explosion–KOH) and explosion–KOH–H₂O₂. The morphology, composition, carding yield, crystalline structures and tensile properties of three different cotton stalk fibers were analyzed. Results showed that cotton stalk fibers extracted by explosion–KOH–H₂O₂ had the lowest fineness value of 27 dtex and moderate aspect ratio of 1,150 in three kinds of fibers. The fibers also had most clean and smooth surfaces, highest carding yield of 68.6 %, and highest cellulose content of 82.1 wt% due to effective removal of non-cellulose impurities. Moreover, the fibers had tensile properties close to cotton fibers. Overall, the cotton stalk fibers presented a better potential to be used as textile fibers than those reported by previous researches. explosion–KOH–H₂O₂ could be an efficient method for exploring textile applications of bark of cotton stalks.     

Advances in the Production of Poly(Lactic Acid) Fibers. A Review

Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) has recently seen its development as a textile fiber. With the resin prepared from agricultural feedstock, the fiber has properties typical of a synthetic fiber, while still being fully biodegradable. This article is an attempt to review recent research developments which have taken this polymer from a specialty suture material to a commodity fiber. Various approaches for the preparation of fiber grade polymer from monomers and its conversion into textile grade filament are discussed. Both solution spinning and melt spinning technology along with physical properties of the fibers are discussed in detail.     

Investigation of the flammability of different textile fabrics using micro-scale combustion calorimetry

Evaluating and analyzing the performance of flame retardant (FR) textiles are a critical part of research and development of new FR textiles products by the industry. The testing methods currently used in the industry have significant limitations. Most analytical and testing techniques are not able to measure heat release rate (HRR), the single most important parameter in evaluating the fire hazard of materials. It is difficult to measure HRR of textile fabrics using cone calorimetry because textile fabrics are dimensionally thin samples. The recently developed micro-scale combustion calorimetry (MCC) is able to measure the following flammability parameters for textile using milligram sample sizes: heat release capacity, HRR, temperature at peak heat release rate (PHRR), total heat release and char yield. In this research, we applied MCC to evaluate the flammability of different textile fabrics including cotton, rayon, cellulose acetate, silk, nylon, polyester, polypropylene, acrylic fibers, Nomex and Kevlar. We also studied the cotton fabrics treated with different flame retardants. We found that MCC is able to differentiate small differences in flammability of textile materials treated with flame retardants. We were also be able to calculate the limiting oxygen index (LOI) using the thermal combustion properties of various textile samples measured by the MCC. The calculated LOI data have yielded good agreement with experimental LOI results. Thus, we conclude that MCC is an effective new analytical technique for measuring textile flammability and has great potentials in the research and development of new flame retardants for textiles.     

ABSOLUTE MOLECULAR WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION OF NITROCELLULOSE

Abstract

Being one of the oldest known polymers, nitrocellulose has been the subject of study for over a century. It was initially used solely for military purposes; however, since the end of World War I its usage has expanded into the fiber and coatings industries where it has been a mainstay to the present day [1, 2]. General interest in the molecular weight characterization of nitrocellulose may be classified into two categories. The firstand more obvious reason for the relevance of this parameter is that the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution profoundly influence the properties of the product and affect the processability of the material, For instance, the molecular weight (hence, the viscosity of this material) is one of the most important factors that needs to be considered in the determination of the nonvolatile content in lacquers [21]. The second reason is that it is a soluble derivative of cellulose, for which direct molecular weight determination is problematic due to solubility difficulties. Thus, nitrocellulose, barring degradation during nitration, has been utilized as a practical means of indirectly arriving at the molecular weight distribution of the starting cellulose. Very closely tied with this second interest is the focus on the conformation of nitrocelluloses with different degrees of substitution. This piece of information has been a major source of questions related to the methodology of calibration when gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was chosen for molecular weight determination.     

Swelling of compressed cellulose fiber webs in organic liquids

Maximum liquid-holding capacities of various compressed fibers in water and in a series of various organic liquids have been investigated. The maximum liquid-holding capacity versus bulk density relationships gave polynomial curves, generally with a peak. Good relative correlations for cellulose, compressed fiber pellets and wood were found for the series of liquids tested. In general, liquids that swelled wood to a low to medium range (up to 6%) did not swell appreciably -cellulose and sulfite pulp, while good to excellent wood-swelling agents swelled all the fibers very significantly. It was also found that the hydrogen-bonding parameter of the swelling liquid was the most important factor. The swelling rate of various compressed fiber systems in organic liquids was dramatically increased by raising the temperature. Activation energies and molar volume of the swelling liquid were linearly correlated.     

Insights into the Lattice Structure of Cellulose II From the High Resolution CP/MAS Solid State 13C NMR Spectrum of Cellotetraose

Abstract

The chemical shifts and multiplicities of the high-resolution ¹³C CP/MAS NMR spectrum of cellulose II are quite diagnostic of the lattice structure of this polymorph. Particularly important is the chemical shift of C-1 and its clear splitting into two lines of equal intensity. Similar chemical shifts and multiplicities are seen in the spectrum of cellotetraose. Thus cellotetraose is considered to be a good model for the lattice structure of the polymer. A detailed investigation of the multiplicity of the C-1 resonance of cellotetraose shows that the two peaks are of equal intensity in this case also. Because of the limited number of repeat units in the tetramer, this observation implies that the unit cell contains two independent chains rather than a “double” repeat unit. This gives support for a similar lattice structure, with two independent chains, for cellulose II itself.     

Identification of Natural and Early Synthetic Textile Dyes with HPLC and UV/Vis-Spectroscopy by Diode Array Detection

Abstract

The separation and identification of complex mixtures of natural and synthetic textile dyes was investigated using HPLC with diode array detection. Separation was carried out on a reversed phase column with acetonitrile-phosphoric acid gradient elution. The results show that the anthraquinones from madder root and the insect dye cocheneal present in ancient red dyes can easily be distinguished from azo-dyes present in later textile fibres. They further show that for an analysis of the numerous flavones and flavonoles, constituting most of the yellow natural dyestuffs, the combination of HPLC with on-line optical spectroscopy is particularly useful. Even when retention times are identical - as for instance for quercetin and luteolin - the ratio of a mixture can still be estimated by evaluating the ratio-chromatogram.     

The influence of classical and enzymatic treatment on the surface charge of cellulose fibres

Natural cellulose fibres comprise several non-cellulose compounds and cationic trash which cause problems during different adsorption processes such as dying, printing, final fiber finishing and coating. Therefore the pre-treatment (classical NaOH or environmental friendly enzymatic treatment, demineralisation) is the most important step in cellulose textile prefinishing-cleaning. An appropriate way to describe the success of different processes in fiber pre-treatment which result in distinct surface charge is the determination of electrokinetic properties-zetapotential (ZP) of fibers and textile materials. The zetapotential was determined by streaming potential measurements as a function of the pH and the surfactant concentration in the liquid phase.Cellulose fibers in an aqueous medium are negatively charged due to their characteristic carbonyl and hydroxyl groups. The degradation and removal of specific hydrophobic non-cellulose compounds which cover the primary wall of the cellulose polymer change the surface charge.The ZP is mainly influenced by waxes, their removal decreases the negative ZP. This result is obtained by the classical chemical process as well as by an environmentally friendly enzymatic treatment.Our results indicate that the progress of textile treatment and purification is reflected by the zetapotential of the fabrics. This method enables the estimation of the process'es progress and the interaction between components of the liquid phase and the fibre surface.     

Structural investigation of cellulose Iα and Iβ by 2D RFDR NMR spectroscopy: determination of sequence of magnetically inequivalent d-glucose units along cellulose chain

In our previous studies of the crystal structure of native cellulose (cellulose I) by solid-state two-dimensional (2D) ¹³C–¹³C INADEQUATE, it was revealed that cellulose I_α contains two kinds of β-d-glucose residues (A and A′) in the unit cell and that cellulose I_β contains another two kinds of residues (B and B′). In the present study, the sequence of residues A and A′ along the same chains in cellulose I_α and that of residues B and B′ in I_β were investigated by 2D ¹³C–¹³C rotor-synchronized radiofrequency-driven recoupling (RFDR) experiments using, respectively, uniformly ¹³C₆-labeled (U−¹³C₆) bacterial cellulose and the same [U−¹³C₆] cellulose sample after thermal treatment at 260 °C. The RFDR spectra recorded with a short mixing time (1.0 ms) showed dipolar-coupled ¹³C spin pairs of only the neighboring carbon of the both phases, while those recorded with a longer mixing time (3.0–15 ms) provided correlations between weakly coupled ¹³C spin pairs as well as strongly coupled ¹³C spin pairs such as neighboring carbon nuclei. In the RFDR spectrum of the [U−¹³C₆] cellulose recorded with a mixing time of 15 ms, the inter-residue ¹³C–¹³C correlation between C4 of residue A and C2 of residue A′ and that between C3 of residue A and C4 of residue A′ were clearly observed. In the case of cellulose I_β, however, inter-residue ¹³C–¹³C correlations between residues B and B′ could not be detected in the series of RFDR spectra recorded with different mixing times of annealed [U−¹³C₆] cellulose. From these findings, that cellulose I_α was revealed to have the –A–A′– repeating units along the cellulose chain. For cellulose I_β, it was revealed that the respective residues B and B′ are composed of independent chains (–B–B– and –B′–B′– repeating units) and that there are no –B–B′– repeating units in the chain.     

Bead Cellulose

Abstract

A new polymeric structure has been developed which fills a blank in available hydrophilic supports for separation processes.

Bead cellulose is a pure regenerated cellulose which is prepared by a modified viscose procedure. It is characterized by a regular spherical shape of individual particles, controlled porosity, accessibility for high molecular weight substances, high deformation stability and adequate chemical reactivity.

Diverse uses of this new material are described, viz., physical supports, chromatographic materials, dried preparations and various derivatives with different functions like ion exchangers, metal chelating adsorbents, chemisorbents, affinity adsorbents, immobilized enzymes. Bead cellulose can also be coupled with various active substances giving composite systems.     

Properties of cellulose pulps from acidic and basic processes

Research has intensified in recent years on organic solvent pulping processes to supplement or replace conventional pulping processes. One of the main problems with organosolv pulps is the inferior tear strength compared to kraft pulps. An investigation of the properties of two acidic (acetic acid organosolv and acid sulfite) and one basic white spruce pulp (kraft) was carried out to determine factors affecting differences in tear strength. Properties evaluated were lignin and sugar content, mineral composition, ESCA oxygen-to-carbon ratios, acid-base characteristics, water wettabilities, degree of polymerization and crystallinity of cellulose, fiber length and coarseness, and physical properties of the various pulps. Differences in tear strength have been attributed to degradation and changes in the cellulose structure, the hemicellulose-lignin matrix in which the degree of polymerization of hemicelluloses plays the most important role in low yield pulps, and finally, the bonding capacity of the fiber surfaces.     

Bleaching of cellulose by hydrogen peroxide

Peroxides are important bleaching agents, industrially, for cellulosic products. They are also used in detergents. Peroxides can degrade cellulose as well as decolorize it and remove stains. Both free radicals and perhydroxyl anions have been suggested as the intermediates in the reactions occurring between cellulosic products and hydrogen peroxide. The proposed mechanisms are reviewed with emphasis primarily on cotton cellulose. Further work is required to establish unequivocally the mechanism of degradation and decolorization of cellulose products.     

5. Applications of cellulose acetate 5.1 Cellulose acetate in textile application

The first cellulose acetate fiber, commonly referred to as acetate, was produced in Europe in 1918 and on a large scale in the United States of America in 1924 making acetate the second man-made fiber to be produced.¹ The usage of acetate worldwide peaked at a consumption of approximately 400 kilotons in the early 1970's.² In the past three decades the use of acetate fiber has declined as fabric manufacturers moved to lower costs manmade fibers such as polyester. Manufacturers of acetate have worked aggressively to reduce their cost while maintaining product quality. These efforts have had some reward, leading to acetate's categorization as a niche fiber. As such, cellulose acetate represents less than one percent of the world's total fiber consumption as compared to cotton at over a third³ of the world's consumption and polyester at around a fourth.⁴ Acetate has been used and continues to be used in many different textile applications because of its attributes and good textile processing performance. It is used in woven fabrics, knits and braids. It is found in multiple applications including medical gauze, ribbons, coffin linings, home furnishings, woven velvets, tricot knits, men's linings, circular knits, woven satins, woven fashion, women's linings. It is found in a variety of deniers, lusters, colors, finishes, compactions types and package sizes. It is often blended with other fibers to make combination yarns.     

Studies of Anion Transport Through Supported Liquid Membrane

Abstract

Transport studies of anions were investigated through cellulose triacetate supported liquid membrane. The experimental variables explored were concentration of anions, sodium hydroxide, and stirring speed. The two-channel membrane system has been explored for the transport of carbonate ions from source to receiving phases. Carbonate ions are selectively transported through the cellulose triacetate supported liquid membrane in comparison with that of nitrate and sulfate. Sulfate and nitrate anions are strongly held in the cellulose triacetate membrane, and then stripped out later. Carbonate ions are loosely bound to the cellulose triacetate membrane and stripped out earlier.     

Superhydrophobic behaviour of plasma modified electrospun cellulose nanofiber-coated microfibers

In this work, a method is presented for production of a textile cellulose fiber with non-wetting properties suitable for applications ranging from wound care and tissue engineering to clothing and other textile applications. Non-wettability is achieved by coating a textile cellulose microfiber with electrospun cellulose nanofibers, creating a large and rough surface area that is further plasma treated with fluorine plasma. High surface roughness and efficient deposition of covalently bound fluorine groups results in the fiber exhibiting non-wetting properties with contact angle measurements indicating superhydrophobicity (>150° water contact angle). It is an environmentally friendly method and the flexibility of the electrospinning process allows for careful design of material properties regarding everything from material choice and surface chemistry to fiber morphology and fiber assembly, pointing to the potential of the method and the developed fibers within a wide range of applications.