{"id":22,"date":"2016-09-05T03:06:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T03:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/?p=22"},"modified":"2016-09-06T07:46:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T07:46:36","slug":"penn-state-project-creates-self-healing-textiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/penn-state-project-creates-self-healing-textiles.html","title":{"rendered":"Penn State Project Creates Self-Healing Textiles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sourcingjournalonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Self-Healing-Textiles.png?w=649&amp;ssl=1\" \/><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_50289\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Courtesy of American Chemical Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What if there were anti-chemical suits that protected farmers from organophosphate pesticides, factory workers from accidental toxic releases and soldiers from chemical attacks?<\/p>\n<p>One Penn State research project is tackling this challenge and creating\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2016\/07\/160725121850.htm\" target=\"_blank\">self-healing textiles that neutralize chemicals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFashion designers use natural fibers made of proteins like wool or silk that are expensive and they are not self-healing,\u201d said engineering science and mechanics professor Melik Demirel. \u201cWe were looking for a way to make fabrics self-healing using conventional textiles. So we came up with this coating technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A special coating process provides self-healing textiles with their chemical repelling abilities; textiles are dipped in a series of liquids that form into a polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer coating.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1021\/acsami.6b05232\" target=\"_blank\">ACS Applied Materials &amp; Interfaces<\/a>\u00a0journal said that the coating is applied, \u201cUnder ambient conditions in safe solvents, such as water, at low cost using simple equipment amenable to scale-up.\u201d Negatively and positively charged polymers make up the polyelectrolyte coatings found in self-healing textiles.<\/p>\n<p>Enzymes can be incorporated into the coating during the layering process. Researchers used a urea-breaking enzyme called urease for the project, but in commercial products, the special coating would contain enzymes that matched targeted chemicals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you need to use enzymes for biological or chemical effects, you can have an encapsulated enzyme with self-healing properties degrade the toxin before it reaches the skin,\u201d said Demirel.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the skin can absorb many toxic substances regardless of working conditions. Self-healing textiles with anti-chemical enzymes could protect people from dangerous exposure. The squid teeth polymers found in self-healing textiles are still efficient in water conditions, too. Garments with this special defense would also be reusable, since laundering repairs micro and macro coating defects.<\/p>\n<p>Self-healing textiles may be new to the apparel market, but they could soon\u00a0play a crucial role in consumers\u2019 lives. The question is, would you willing to replace your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/products\/\" target=\"_blank\">mattress protector<\/a> if it has self-healing ability?<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Courtesy of American Chemical Society What if there were anti-chemical suits that protected farmers from organophosphate pesticides, factory workers from accidental toxic releases and soldiers from chemical attacks? One Penn State research project is tackling this challenge and creating\u00a0self-healing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/penn-state-project-creates-self-healing-textiles.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.springtextile.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}