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Table of Content

    15 November 2023, Volume 44 Issue 11
        
    • Fiber Materials
      Preparation method of and anti-dripping and flame retardant properties of polycaprolactam 6 composite resin based on homotriazine ring structure
      ZHANG Wenqi, LI Lili, HU Zexu, WEI Lifei, XIANG Hengxue, ZHU Meifang
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  1-8.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220506001
      Abstract ( 266 )   HTML ( 34 )   PDF (5024KB) ( 158 )   Save
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      Objective Polycaprolactam 6 (PA6) is a polymer material widely used in daily life, but it is flammable. High-temperature oxidation during combustion process would cause its molecular chain to break, resulting in problems such as continuous combustion and melt dripping. At present, charring technology has become an important means to solve these problems. The homotriazine ring flame retardant has excellent charring performance by virtue of its conjugated stable structure, which has greatest potential to solve the problem of PA6 flame retardant.

      Method Triazine flame retardant forms a carbon layer on the polymer surface to resist the further combustion of flame, hence improving the flame retardancy of PA6. Triazine ring structure also has certain structural compatibility with PA6 molecular chain, which would not affect the processing and mechanical properties of PA6. Therefore, homotriazine ring flame retardant (CFA) was added to PA6 by melt blending to improve the flame retardancy of PA6. The charring performance of the PA6 composite resin was studied through the thermal experiment. By examining the limiting oxygen index, vertical combustion and cone calorimetry experiment, the influence on the flame retardant and charring property on PA6 resin was studied, which was used for explaining the mechanism of the CFA flame retardant.

      Results In this research, a series of composite resin were prepared by melt blending CFA flame retardant and PA6. After adding 8% CFA flame retardant to PA6 resin, the vertical combustion rating reached V-0 level, the limiting oxygen index increased from 24.5% to 33.4% (Tab. 1 and Fig. 2), and the total smoke release decreased by 13.3% (Fig. 3), suggesting the effectiveness of CFA in many aspects. The charring rate of CFA flame retardant itself in the air atmosphere reached 8.3%, and the charring rate of PA6 composite resin after adding 10% CFA was more than twice that of pure PA6, from 1.87% to 4.84% (Fig. 4), because of better isolation to oxygen and heat. By analyzing the four decomposition processes of CFA flame retardants in a nitrogen gasatmosphere, it was found that the charring performance of CFA was mainly by virtue of the tertiary nitrogen structure contained, and a stable carbon layer were be formed during the high-temperature process, thereby improving the high-temperature formation of the composites (Fig. 5). In order to understand the effectiveness of the flame retardant carbon structure, the structure of residual carbon and the composition of decomposition gas were analyzed. Compared with the carbon layer formed by the series of PA6 samples, it was revealed that the addition of CFA made the carbon layer rougher. When the mass fraction of CFA reaches more than 8%, the carbon layer began to become smooth again, facilitating effective protection to the internal PA6, thereby improving heat insulation and dripping resistance of PA6 composite resin (Fig. 6). The gas phase flame retardant mechanism was also found playing a role in improving the flame retardancy of PA6 resin (Fig. 8). Based on the above analysis, it was believed that good flame retardancy of PA6 composite resin is mainly because of the dilution effect of non-combustible gases in the gas phase and the barrier effect of the carbon layer in the condensed phase in the combustion process. The addition of CFA flame retardant did not lead to a decrease in the tensile break strength of PA6, but rather improved it. When the mass fraction of CFA was 8%, the tensile break strength of PA6 composite resin increased by 28.8%.

      Conclusion After studying the performance of flame retardant PA6, It was found that CFA greatly increased the limiting oxygen index and vertical combustion of flame retardant PA6, and decreased smoke emission. CFA flame retardant can also improve the smoke suppression effect of PA6 to a certain extent, and enhance the tensile strength of PA6, greatly expanding the application range of PA6. The experimental results also verified the good compatibility between CFA and PA6 molecular chains. The research on PA6 flame retardant mechanism needs be further studied to improve the flame retardancy of PA6.

      Mechanical properties of long carbon chain polyamide 1012 fiber at different temperature fields
      CHEN Meiyu, LI Lifeng, DONG Xia
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  9-18.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220508201
      Abstract ( 172 )   HTML ( 22 )   PDF (3512KB) ( 101 )   Save
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      Objective Preliminary industrial spinning trial suggested that long carbon chain polyamide 1012 (PA1012) has good spinning performance. In order to further explore the application possibility of PA1012 fiber in the environment of extremely low and high temperatures, tensile mechanical property evolution of PA1012 fully-drawn yarn (FDY) and drawn and textured yarn (DTY) with different drawing ratios at different temperature fields were investigated.

      Method PA1012 resin chips were used as raw materials to prepare PA1012 FDY and DTY samples using a melting spinning machine. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was adopted to test the basic thermal properties, and the dynamic thermomechanical properties of PA1012 fiber were analyzed by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The tensile mechanical property evolution of PA1012 FDY and DTY with different drawing ratios of 1.3-2.7 at different temperature fields were investigated by universal testing machine and X-ray diffraction instrument.

      Results The glass transition temperature and melting temperature of PA1012 fiber were 65.6 and 188 ℃, respectively. The DMA test results revealed three loss peaks with different intensities appearing at 70.9, -3.6 and -56.0 ℃, corresponding to the α, β and γ relaxation of the PA1012 fiber (Fig. 2). At room temperature, the tensile mechanical properties of PA1012 FDY with different drawing ratios were found similar. With the increase of tensile elongation, the tensile strength of PA1012 FDY showed a linear increase. When drawing to the yield point, a tensile platform area appeared, and showed that the higher the drawing ratio the shorter the platform area. As the tensile elongation increasing, the tensile strength continued to increase until fracture appeared (Fig. 3). Furthermore, the initial modulus, yield strength, yielding elongation and breaking strength of PA1012 FDY demonstrated a positive linear correlation with the drawing ratio, and the breaking elongation correlated with the drawing ratio in a negative exponential relationship (Fig. 4). By contrast, the initial modulus of DTY1.3(the drawing ratio of 1.3) at room temperature decreased by 57.47%, and the average breaking strength decreased by 2.24%, but the breaking elongation increased by 1.40% (Fig. 5). These were resulted from the texturing action decreased the crystallinity and axis orientation index of PA1012 fiber (Fig. 6 and Tab. 3). With the increase of the extreme ambient temperature, the initial modulus, yield strength, and breaking strength PA1012 FDY with different drawing ratios gradually decreased, and the yielding elongation was substantially unchanged. However, the breaking elongation increased significantly (Fig. 7). Furthermore, the experiments found that the breaking strength of PA1012 FDY2.7 (the drawing ratio of 2.7) at -70 ℃ was high and reached 6.04 cN/dtex, with the breaking elongation of 9.13%. PA1012 FDY with different drawing ratios became brittle at -70 ℃, with no yield when stretched. When increasing the extreme temperature, the initial modulus and the breaking strength of PA1012 DTY1.3 demonstrated gradually decreases, but the breaking elongation appeared to increase significantly.

      Conclusion PA1012 FDY has potential application prospects in polar cold regions as -70 ℃. PA1012 FDY with different drawing ratios are suitable for different high-temperature limits. PA1012 FDY1.3 and PA1012 FDY1.7 (the drawing ratio of 1.7) can be used in the extreme environment temperature range from -70 ℃ to 120 ℃. However, with the further increase of the drawing ratio, the limit high temperature suitable for using PA1012 FDY shows a downward trend, and the environment temperature for using PA1012 FDY2.1 (the drawing ratio of 2.1) and PA1012 FDY2.7 should not exceed 60 ℃. PA1012 DTY1.3 can be used normally in the environment temperature range from 0 ℃ to 120 ℃, but it is not suitable for using in a low temperature environment below 0 ℃. It can be seen that by adjusting the drawing ratio of PA1012 FDY, the prepared PA1012 fibers can obtain good mechanical properties in different environments of extreme high and low temperature, and adapt to the actual applications in polar cold regions and high hot environments.

      Preparation and application of silk fibroin/chitosan composite fiber membrane
      LEI Caihong, YU Linshuang, JIN Wanhui, ZHU Hailin, CHEN Jianyong
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  19-26.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220606801
      Abstract ( 199 )   HTML ( 28 )   PDF (9081KB) ( 128 )   Save
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      Objective Silk fibroin (SF) is a macromolecular protein derived from silk. In recent years, silk-based biomaterials have been studied and applied in the field of wound repair and become the preferred material for wound dressing. However, single silk fibroin-based biomaterials have weak antibacterial performance, which limits their application in wound dressing. Meanwhile, chitosan (CS) has non-toxicity, good biocompatibility and strong antibacterial properties, and has a wide range of applications in the field of medical dressings. Electrospinning technology has potential development in the field of wound dressing and is potential for developing fiber membrane materials with excellent performance.

      Method With hexafluoropropanol and trifluoroacetic acid as solvent, silk fibroin was dissolved to prepare chitosan blended spinning solution. Electrospinning was adopted to prepare the composite fiber membrane, and the silk fibroin/chitosan composite fiber membrane microstructure was studied to determine bibulous rate and to characterize the hemostatic and antibacterial properties.

      Results Before ethanol soaking, the fibers of pure silk fibroin membrane SF were smooth and loose, without bead shape, but after ethanol soaking, the fibers became dense and reticular. After the addition of chitosan, the SF/CS composite fiber membrane fibers became thinner. The network structure of electrospinning was conducive to the increase and proliferation of cell binding sites when the fiber membrane touches the wound (Fig. 1). The absorption peaks of amide I at 1 625 cm-1 and amide II at 1 520 cm-1 were present for the composite fiber membranes. Chitosan has sec-alcohol hydroxyl at 1 029 cm-1 υ(C—O). It was seen that the typical characteristic peaks of CS and SF appeared for SF/CS composite fiber membranes, indicating that SF and CS were physically mixed and no new substances were produced (Fig. 2). In the process of increasing chitosan content, the water absorption of composite fiber membrane were increased followed by a decrease. Compared with hemostatic gauze, the absorbency of the composite fiber membrane was significantly improved (Fig. 3). With the increase of chitosan content, the blood absorbed by SF/CS composite fiber membrane increased, and the color of supernatant gradually became lighter. Its in vitro coagulation-promoting capability was superior to that of hemostatic gauze (Fig. 4). With the increase of chitosan content, the coagulation time of SF/CS composite fiber membrane was gradually shortened, among which, SF/CS4(the mass ratio of SF to CS of 5∶2) composite fiber membrane had the shortest coagulation time and the best coagulation effect (Fig. 5). With the increase of chitosan content, the antibacterial effect of SF/CS composite fiber membrane on the two strains was gradually enhanced. The antibacterial effect of SF/CS composite fiber membrane on Staphylococcus aureus was obviously better than that on Escherichia coli. When the mass ratio of silk fibroin to chitosan was 5∶2, the bacteria inhibition rate against Escherichia coli was (73.93±0.85)%, the bacteria inhibition zone diameter was (11.88±0.04) mm, and the bacteria inhibition zone diameter against Staphylococcus aureus was (93.27±0.97)%, the bacteria inhibition zone diameter was (15.34±0.04) mm (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7).

      Conclusion Silk fibroin/chitosan composite fiber membranes with different mass ratios were prepared by electrospinning technology, and their micromorphology, water absorption, hemostatic and bacteria inhibition properties were investigated. The antibacterial activity and hemostatic performance of composite fiber membranes are closely related to the content of chitosan. When the mass ratio of silk fibroin to chitosan is 5∶2, the composite fiber membrane SF/CS4 has higher water absorption and better antibacterial effect. Meanwhile, the results of hemostatic performance test show that the composite fiber membrane SF/CS4 has smaller in vitro coagulation index and shorter in vitro coagulation time. Hemostatic performance is better than hemostatic gauze. The composite fiber membrane material prepared with silk fibroin-based has good performance, which is worth further exploration for application for wound healing.

      Preparation and long-lasting performance of polyacrylonitrile/Ag composite nanofiber membrane for high efficiency filtration
      WANG Xixian, GUO Tianguang, WANG Dengke, NIU Shuai, JIA Lin
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  27-35.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220701601
      Abstract ( 128 )   HTML ( 18 )   PDF (5513KB) ( 50 )   Save
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      Objective Air pollution has become a serious threat to the environment and human health, and in particular PM0.3 and virus can hardly to be captured or intercepted by conventional filtering products. The nanofiber membranes with small diameters have high specific surface area, controllable porosity and morphology, and can effectively filter fine particles. However, most research in documents only deals with problems in the ideal state, without considering the long-lasting performance of the filter material. Finding filter materials that can achieve high efficiency and low pressure drop with long-lasting filter performance in practice is essential and necessary.

      Method Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber has good thermal stability, mechanical properties and solvent resistance, and the strong polar group —CN in PAN can enhance the mutual attraction between nanofiber and particulate matter. Ag nanoparticles (NPs) is widely used as functional additives in the fields of antibacterial materials, biology, and photocatalytic catalysts. In this research, the Ag NPs with antibacterial properties were mixed with PAN solution, and PAN/Ag composite nanofiber membranes were prepared by electrospinning technology. The morphology and structure of nanofibers were observed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry. In addition, the permeability, humidity performance, wettability and filtering performance of nanofiber membrane were characterized.

      Results The addition of Ag NPs changed the microstructure of nanofiber, and the standard deviation of PAN/Ag composite nanofiber membrane was significantly improved. The smallest diameter (180±38) nm was achieved when Ag NPs mass fraction was 0.5%(PAN/Ag-5), and the diameter of PAN/Ag composite nanofiber increased with the Ag NPs mass fraction went higher (Fig. 1). The FT-IR spectra of PAN and PAN/Ag expressed the characteristics of PAN typical absorption peaks (Fig. 3), suggesting the addition of Ag NPs did not change the chemical structure of PAN. The air permeability and moisture permeability of PAN/Ag composite nanofiber membrane decreased with the increase of Ag NPs mass fraction (Fig. 4). The smallest air permeability value was 456.9 mm/s when Ag NPs mass fraction was 0.5% and spinning time was 40 min which attribute to the smallest diameters and thickness of deposit. The smallest moisture permeability value was 1 586.32 g/(m2·d)when Ag NPs mass fraction was 1.5% and spinning time was 40 min. The results of water contact angle test showed that PAN nanofiber membrane had hydrophilicity because of the cyano group, on account of the smallest of diameter and standard deviation of PAN/Ag-5, the water contact angle is 112.5°, showing hydrophobicity. The trend of filtration efficiency and pressure drop curve were basically the same as the diameter of nanofiber (Fig. 5) because the both are closely related to the diameter and standard deviation of nanofiber. The filtration efficiency and pressure drop of PAN/Ag composite nanofiber membrane when Ag NPs mass fraction was 0.5% and spinning time was 40 min reached the highest value 99.935% and 99.381 Pa. In order to test the feasibility of PAN/Ag composite nanofiber membranes in practical applications, the nanofiber membranes were stored statically in the dust cover for 365 d before testing, and found that the gas flow rate remained between 32 and 85 L/min, indicating that the nanofiber membranes maintained excellent filtration performance (Fig. 6). The filtration efficiency and pressure drop of the nanofiber membranes after standing for 365 d decreased partly, on account of the electret effect was reduced because of some shallow trap and even the charge of the deep trap will escape to neutralize the water molecules on the surface of the membrane, the effect of electrostatic adsorption was weakened. The nanofiber membranes prepared with the best experimental parameters were fitted on the filter element of the air conditioner (Fig. 8), and the results showed that the nanofiber membrane could effectively filter the particles produced by burning sandalwood(simulate severe air pollution) in the air to avoid secondary pollution.

      Conclusion In general, the best experimental parameters selected from the aspects of filter performance was mass fraction of Ag NPs 0.5%, and the spinning time is 30 min. The obtained results implied that nanofiber membrane can effectively filter the particles in the air to avoid secondary pollution with high efficiency, low pressure drop as well as long-lasting filter performance in practice. The research findings broaden the application scope of nanofiber filters in practical life, and are expected to open up efficient, sustainable, and new implementation approach in the field of precise filtering.

      Preparation and electrical conductivity of carbon nanocoating on glass fiber surface by polymer pyrolysis
      TAN Jing, SHI Xin, YU Jingchao, CHENG Lisheng, YANG Tao, YANG Weimin
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  36-44.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220700501
      Abstract ( 142 )   HTML ( 14 )   PDF (9903KB) ( 74 )   Save
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      Objective The glass fiber belongs to non-metallic insulation materials, and carbon nanomaterials have excellent electrical conductivity. In order to study the influence of carbon nanocoating on glass fiber with common plastics as carbon source and to further expand the application fields of carbon nanomaterials and glass fiber, glass fiber and carbon nanomaterials were combined to obtain carbon nanocoated glass fibers.

      Method Polyethylene terephthalate(PET) or polyvinyl chloride(PVC) polymer was used as a solid carbon source to prepare carbon nanocoating on glass fiber by chemical vapor deposition. Carbon nanocoated glass fibers were prepared at 700, 750, 800, 850, 900 and 950 ℃. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermal shock experiment, single fiber strength instrument and resistivity instrument were adopted to characterize the fiber properties.

      Results The surface of glass fiber was obviously observed at 700 ℃ but carbon nanocoating was not obvious. The black carbon nanocoating with metallic luster became more obvious and the preparation effect became better with the increase of preparation temperature (Fig. 2). SEM characterization further confirmed that the carbon nanocoating was successfully prepared and the coating surface was smooth and tightly coated on the surface of glass fiber (Fig. 3). For the carbon nanocoating on glass fiber prepared from PET and PVC, the intensity ratios of D peak to G peak were 0.942 6 and 0.904 6, respectively. The carbon nanocoating had a multilayer graphene-like structure with a tendency to pile up, and the defect density of carbon nanocoating prepared from PVC was smaller in Raman spectra (Fig. 4). The ratios of sp2 C=C to sp3 C—C were 6.428 1 and 6.821 3, respectively, further indicating that the carbon nanocoating prepared from PVC had fewer defects in XPS (Fig. 5 and Tab. 1). In the thermal shock experiment, no structural defect appeared in 10 cycles, the carbon nanocoating prepared from PET began to show structural defects after 15 cycles. The carbon nanocoating prepared from PET and PVC showed the whole sheet spalling, lamellar structure adhesion and granular debris after 20 cycles. It was also found that the defect structure of the carbon nanocoating prepared by PET was more obvious (Fig. 6). The fracture stresses of the raw glass fiber and the glass fiber with carbon nanocoating prepared by PET and PVC were 929.29, 649.00 and 719.73 MPa, respectively, and the fracture stresses were reduced by 30.17% and 22.55%, respectively. The glass fiber with carbon nanocoating prepared from PVC had slightly better mechanical property than that prepared from PET, and no significant difference was found in mechanical property between the two types of fibers in practical application (Fig. 7). The resistance of the initial glass fiber was 7.485×108 Ω/cm, and the resistance of glass fiber with carbon nanocoating prepared from PET and PVC at 950 ℃ was 602.10 and 181.65 Ω/cm, respectively (Fig. 8).

      Conclusion PET and PVC are adopted to prepare carbon nanocoating on the glass fiber successfully. The coating can be closely coated on the glass fiber without cracks and faults. The two types of carbon nanocoating show good bonding performance within 10-15 thermal shock cycles and the bonding property of carbon nanocoating prepared from PVC is better than that prepared from PET. No significant difference exists in the mechanical property of fibers. The coating quality improves with the increase of preparation temperature in the range of 700-950 ℃. The carbon nanocoating has a sp2 hybrid multilayer graphene-like structure with certain defects, and the carbon nanocoating prepared from PVC has fewer defects. The glass fiber with carbon nanocoating has excellent electrical conductivity, and the resistance decreases significantly with the increase of temperature in the range of 700-950 ℃. Finally, PET, PVC and other polymers are used as solid carbon sources for carbon nanocoating on glass fiber, which is of great significance for the achieving of electrical conductivity of the glass fiber and other functional applications, and for high value recycling of waste plastics.

      Preparation and properties of masterbatch for polyamide dope dyeing
      LI Xiutian, SONG Weiguang, ZHANG Liping, DU Changsen, FU Shaohai
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  45-51.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220702701
      Abstract ( 112 )   HTML ( 10 )   PDF (4729KB) ( 64 )   Save
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      Objective The conventional dyeing of polyamide 66 (PA66) has the disadvantage of poor uniformity, color depth and color fastness, and also has other problems such as serious environmental pollution and high energy consumption. Dope dyeing refers to adding colorant during and after the polymerization process to produce colored fibers during fiber spinning. In order to meet the increasingly stringent environmental requirements, the dope dyeing technology has high practical value and good prospects for development. In this research, PA66 salt-based carbon black dispersion was prepared, which was further used as a colorant in dope dyeing of PA66.

      Method Self-dispersible carbon black (SPCB) was prepared by combining ultrasonic dispersion with spray drying, which was then dispersed in PA66 salt solution to prepare PA66 salt-based carbon black dispersion, PA66 masterbatch was prepared by in situ polymerization method, and finally PA66 film was further prepared by melt blending method. The factors of PA66 salt-based carbon black dispersion were investigated by estimating its particle size and stability. The SPCB influence on the performance of PA66 film was analyzed.

      Results Among the dispersants NNO, Tween 20, SMA and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), it was found PVP is the best dispersant to prepare the PA66 salt-based carbon black dispersion with small particle size and good stability. The influence of mass fraction of carbon black, ultrasonic time and power on the dispersion process was investigated. The optimum preparation process was as follows. The mass fraction of PVP to carbon black was 15%, the mass fraction of carbon black to the system was 10%, the ultrasonic treatment power was 1 260 W, and the time was 80 min. The average particle size of the prepared PA66 salt-based carbon black dispersion was 184.1 nm, the centrifugal stability was 96.20%, and the placement stability was 91.85%. The spray-dried SPCB surface was successfully coated with PVP. Compared with the original carbon black, SPCB showed better self-dispersing properties with a narrow particle size distribution. The average particle size of SPCB was 202 nm, which was about 30 nm larger than that of the carbon black dispersion before spray drying. The pigment particles were evenly dispersed in the PA66 matrix with a particle size of about 200 nm. With the increase of SPCB mass fraction, the color change value of PA66 film gradually became smaller, the color tended to be saturated, and the uniformity was better. At SPCB mass fraction of 0.2%, the K/S value was 9.20, L* value was 26.82, a* value was -0.04, and b* value was -0.55. However, the distribution of pigment particles in the matrix hindered the movement of macromolecular chains, which hindered the crystallization of PA66. The melt temperature of the prepared PA66 film was 259.2 ℃, the crystallization temperature was 230.8 ℃, and the crystallinity was 36.5%.

      Conclusion Compared with conventional dyeing, dope dyeing enables PA66 to be prepared with better uniformity, color depth and color fastness, dope dyeing is also a cleaner and greener coloring technology. The most critical issue of dope dyeing is to improve the compatibility and dispersion of pigments in PA66 matrix. The pigments were modified by coating through ultrasonic dispersion and spray drying technique in combination, and PA66 masterbatches were prepared by in situ polymerization after mixing with PA66 salt solution. The results showed that no large particle agglomeration occurred in SPCB in PA66 matrix, and the particle size was 200 nm, which indicated that the experiment improved the compatibility and dispersion of pigments in PA66 matrix very well. The research results show that PA66 salt-based carbon black dispersion is a good colorant for dope dyeing of PA66.

      Textile Engineering
      Establishment of novel model and performance analysis of airflow drafting channel
      WANG Qing, LIANG Gaoxiang, YIN Junqing, SHENG Xiaochao, LÜ Xushan, DANG Shuai
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  52-60.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220701701
      Abstract ( 143 )   HTML ( 11 )   PDF (3221KB) ( 182 )   Save
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      Objective In the spinning process, slivers need to be drafted for several times to achieve a certain fineness. At present, this process is mainly performed through the roller drafting mechanism. Due to the limitation of the deceleration ratio of transmission system, the velocity ratio of front and rear rollers is generally small, hence the slivers need to be drafted for several times to achieve the needed drafting ratio. In the process of drafting, the friction force between fibers changes dynamically and so does the drawing force. In order to solve the above problems, an airflow assisted drafting method is proposed, and the performance of such a system is modeled and simulated.

      Method It was proposed that the sliver from the airflow drafting channel goes directly into the twisting channel of the air-jet vortex spinning machine. The drafting ratio was set to 140 according to the drafting ratio of roving frame and spinning frame. The outlet air velocity of airflow drafting channel was set to 420 m/s, according to the air-jet vortex spinning speed. The inlet air velocity of airflow drafting channel was calculated as 3 m/s. The model of the airflow drafting channel was established (Fig. 4). The fluid-solid coupling simulation platform was built based on ANSYS Workbench software, and the fluid-solid coupling effects of single straight fiber, two parallel straight fibers and a single hooked fiber were numerically simulated, respectively.

      Results The motion trajectories of a single straight fiber, two parallel straight fibers and a single hooked fiber in the drafting channel were obtained by simulation (Fig. 12-14). The fiber was accelerated forward in the drafting channel, and its motion track was wavy (Fig. 12). Due to the large velocity gradient of the air in the drafting channel, the air velocity at the fiber head was higher than that at the fiber tail. As a result, the fiber straightens again when it flew out of drafting channel. When two straight parallel fibers moved in the drafting channel, they got close and eventually contacted each other (Fig. 13). Because of different air velocities at different positions in the drafting channel, the two fibers stagger with each other in the forward process. Compared with straight fibers, the single hooked fiber moved faster in the drafting channel, and the total moving time was greatly reduced (Fig. 14). At the same time, Because of the influence of the friction force of the air, the hooked fibers gradually extend straight during the forward motion.

      Conclusion Through the analysis of the above results, these conclusions can be attained. Firstly, velocity gradient of the air in the drafting channel is large, which makes fibers accelerate forward and straighten again when they exit the drafting channel. Secondly, when multiple fibers move in the drafting channel, different fibers stagger forward by means of different air velocities at different positions. That is, the fibers are redistributed in the advancing process. Thirdly, in the process of movement, the hooked fibers will be gradually straightened due to the friction force of the air. So the purpose of straightening fibers is realized similar to that of roller drafting. Finally, Becaust of the boundary layer effect of the air, the air velocity close to the inner wall of the drafting channel is smaller than that in the center of the drafting channel, and the farther away from the center, the lower the air velocity, suggesting that the fibers tend to move close to the inner wall as they move forward. In summary, in the airflow drafting channel, fibers can be accelerated, redistributed and straightened, that is, the purpose of drafting can be achieved, verifying the effectiveness of the airflow drafting method.

      Preparation and properties of special basalt sewing threads
      LUO Chunxu, GONG Haoran, WU Minyong, HUANG Cong, LIU Keshuai
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  61-66.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220706801
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      Objective As one of the most widely used inorganic fiber, basalt fiber has the advantage of high strength, high modulus, excellent chemical corrosion resistance and anti-atomic oxygen properties. Thus,it can be used as a high-temperature resistant sewing thread material in aviation and military industries. However, its high brittleness and poor-wear resistance strongly restrict the processibility and final application of basalt fiber. In order to prepare basalt fiber based high-performance sewing threads, polyamide filaments were introduced to incorporate with basalt fiber for fabricating composites yarns.

      Method Using a hollow spindle covering spinning mechanism, the polyamide filament yarn was used as the sheath to coat the double-stranded basalt filament yarn in both directions. In this case, the basalt core yarn was arranged vertically in the coating yarn and was coated by the outer polyamide filament. The outer coating yarn not only contributed to the strength but also provided strong wear-resistance, laying the foundation for the preparation of excellent sewing threads with both flexibility and high strength properties.

      Results The overall strength of all five different double-coated yarns was increased over the core basalt yarn by about 23% to 29%. The basalt core yarn was axially arranged in the composite yarn retaining the core yarn strength, while the outer coating yarn also contributed to the strength resulting in enhanced strength of the composite yarn. The breaking force maximized when the wrapping twist was 650 twists/m (Tab. 2). At this twist, the yarn exhibited the highest breaking elongation, indicating that the yarn has good flexibility. When the twist increased to 750 twists/m, the breaking strength of the yarn decreased sharply by 3.20 cN/tex. The strength variations of three different yarn densities were compared by selecting the optimal strength at 650 twists/m (Tab. 3). It showed that the higher the density of the composite yarn, the higher the strength of the yarn. The coated yarn of 16.7 tex in this research had the highest break strength. The variation of twist of the composite yarn showed that the increase of twist would lead to the increase of coating density (Fig. 3). The three-dimensional microscopic fracture morphology indicated that the surface core yarns showed different magnitudes of protrusion at the wrapping spacing, and the core yarns broke into splits after a fracture. The results of the wear-resistance tests shown that at 650 twists/m the yarn has the smallest coefficient of variation (Tab. 4). The core yarn was protected by the sheath, and the low-twist sheath yarn also demonstrated strong wear-resistance in the test.

      Conclusion As the twist increases, the composite yarn strength firstly increases and then decreases, and the higher the density of the outer yarn, the higher the yarn strength. The spiral coating structure of the outer yarn provides axial force in the radial direction and increases the clamping force. Continuously increasing the twist, the angle between the two-way sheath increases as well, causing smaller spacing between coating sheath strands, higher yarn density, but lower axial strength of the composite yarn. Further increase in twist could lead to lower strength because the core yarn can be damaged by too tight hold. The degree of wear-resistance tends to weaken and then increase with an increasing twist. At lower twist levels, the polyamide filament spacing is relatively long and the number of abrasion rollers rubbing against the polyamide filament increases. After increasing the twist degree, the pilling phenomenon tends to occur when grinding, and the number of grinding breaks decreases. Continuously increasing the yarn wrapping tightness makes it hold stronger, and the wear-resistance will gradually increase.

      Construction of capacitive sensor based on silver coated polyamide 6/polyamide 6 nanofiber core-spun yarn
      FAN Mengjing, WU Lingya, ZHOU Xinru, HONG Jianhan, HAN Xiao, WANG Jian
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  67-73.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220708601
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      Objective Wearable technology is currently one of the most promising fields and as a key component for wearable devices, flexible sensors are crucial to the development of intelligent wearable products. Sensing performance is the only criterion for the quality of a sensor. It is of great significance to propose a new one-dimensional flexible strain-capacitive sensor with good sensing performance.

      Method Adopting the method of water bath electrospinning, experimental parameters were set with spinning solution concentration of 12%, electrostatic voltage of 20 kV, spinneret rate of 0.2 mL/h, core yarn winding speed of 0.16 m/min, and receiving distance of 5 cm. Silver coated polyamide 6(SCN) was chosen as the core yarn (capacitor electrode plate), and polyamide 6(PA6) nanofiber was used as the coating layer (dielectric layer) to prepare the silver coated polyamide 6/polyamide 6 (SCN/PA6) nanofiber core-spun yarn, which was wound on the rubber band to prepare the strain-capacitive flexible sensor. The human knee was selected as the experimental test site, and the test subjects performed intermittent knee bending, continuous knee bending, and walking on the treadmill at different speeds, and the capacitance changes of the sensor during the movement were recorded by the capacitance tester in real time.

      Results By observing the structure morphology of SCN, analyzing the mechanical properties, and testing the sensing performance and practical application of the sensor, the following conclusions were obtained. PA6 nanofiber coating with complete structure was formed by electrospinning on the surface of SCN fiber (Fig. 4), with a thickness of 15-20 μm. The diameter distribution of nanofibers (Fig. 5) was uniform, mainly in the range of 80-100 nm, with an average diameter of 95.53 nm. Compared with the core yarn, the breaking strength and elongation at break of the nanofiber core-spun yarn were slightly increased and slightly decreased (Fig. 6), but the changes were small. The relative capacitance of the prepared sensor showed a decrease with the increase of elongation during stretching, while the recovery followed the opposite pattern, and the decreasing trend of the minimum capacitance gradually slows down (Fig. 7). When the elongation was small (6.67%), the linear fitting equation obtained with the elongation as the independent variable and Cp/C0 as the dependent variable had a correlation coefficient as high as 0.988 6 (Tab. 1), showing good linearity. The sensitivity of the sensor gradually decreased with the increase of the elongation. When the elongation was 6.67%, the gauge factor value reached 3.93, while when the elongation was 66.67%, the gauge factor value was only 0.90 (Tab. 2). The maximum Cp/C0 value of the sensor was about 1 for each stretch cycle of 450 s at different elongations, and the minimum Cp/C0 value was close to the minimum Cp/C0 value of the single stretch (Fig. 9), showing good repeatability stability. The variation of stretching speed has almost no effect on the relative capacitance of the sensor.

      Conclusion By placing the sensor on the knee for intermittent, continuous bending and walking movements, regular and stable capacitance signal changes were obtained (Fig. 11), and Cp/C0 values fluctuated stably between 0.6 and 1.0. According to the calculation and analysis of the signal changes at different speeds, the number and frequency of steps of the experimenter can be obtained (at speed of 3 km/h, the frequency is 86.4 steps/min; at speed of 4 km/h, the frequency is 107.2 steps/min; at speed of 6 km/h, the frequency is 151.8 steps/min). The strain sensor has potential applications in the field of real-time monitoring of flexible wearable human motion. It is suggested to select materials with better performance and improve the design of the structure to better play its original value.

      Heat transfer and thermal protection properties under strong thermal conditions of woven fabrics
      YANG Mengxiang, LIU Rangtong, LI Liang, LIU Shuping, LI Shujing
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  74-82.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220506901
      Abstract ( 114 )   HTML ( 7 )   PDF (7358KB) ( 88 )   Save
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      Objective Thermal protective clothing has attracted much attention because of its unique thermal insulation function and wide application prospects. However, it is difficult to describe the transient heat transfer process in the fabric by physical tests, and the preparation process of thermal protective fabric needs to rely on a large number of thermal protective performance tests. Therefore, the transient heat transfer process of different woven fabric is simulated by finite element method.

      Method The transient heat transfer characteristics of six woven fabrics (plain weave, 2  1-6  1 twill) of aramid and polyester were studied by finite element simulation, and the temperature nephogram and surface temperature time varying diagram of the fabrics were obtained. From the two dimensions of heat insulation time and heat insulation temperature, five indicators for evaluating the thermal protection performance of fabrics under strong thermal conditions were proposed, namely, the lag time of temperature rise on the lower surface, temperature rise speed of lower surface, stable temperature of upper and lower surfaces, maximum temperature difference and stable temperature difference. The effects of yarn float and heat source intensity on the thermal protection performance of fabrics were studied.

      Results The heat flow is transmitted along the yarn float, which causes the temperature of the yarn body on the surface of the fabric to rise, and the temperature of the yarn in the weaving area to rise faster, forming the upper and lower surface temperatures and temperature differences related to the yarn float (Fig. 3). The lag time, maximum temperature difference and stable temperature difference of the initial temperature rise of the lower surface of the six aramid and polyester fabrics from low to high all exist: plain,2  1,3  1,4  1,5  1,6  1 twill, showing a positive correlation with the fabric float (Fig. 5, Fig. 6), while the lower surface temperature rise speed and stable temperature show a negative correlation with the fabric float (Fig. 4, Fig. 6). Under the condition of conventional heat source intensity of 0.8 kW/m2, single-layer aramid and polyester fabrics can effectively prevent the heat flow lag of about 1.5 and 1.4 s, respectively (Fig. 6). When the heat transfer balance is reached, the upper surface temperature of aramid and polyester fibers is stabilized at about 318.33 and 317.13 K(45.18 and 43.98 ℃), respectively, the lower surface temperature is stabilized at about 306.53 and 307.63 K(33.38 and 34.48 ℃), respectively, and the upper and lower surface temperature difference is stabilized at about 11.8 and 9.5 K respectively. With the increase of heat source intensity, the lag time decreases gradually (Tab. 5). Under the heat source intensity of 4.0 kW/m2, the lower surface temperature of aramid and polyester fibers are stabilized at 345.26 and 350.47 K (about 72.11 and 77.32 ℃)(Tab. 6), respectively, which are 37 ℃ higher than the constant physiological temperature of human body.

      Conclusion The yarn float will directly affect the heat transfer of the fabric. When other conditions are the same, the thermal insulation and protection performance of the six fabrics from low to high is: plain,2  1,3  1,4  1,5  1,6  1 twill. Under strong heat intensity, the single-layer fabric is not enough to delay the heat flow transmission, and the thermal insulation protection ability is limited. It is necessary to increase the protective thickness or add other materials to improve the thermal insulation ability. Through the RPP thermal protection performance test, the test results are in good agreement with the simulation results, and the research results provide guidance for the design of thermal insulation structures.

      Structural design and performance of unidirectional moisture-transfer weft-knitted forming fabrics
      DING Yuqin, DONG Zhijia, CONG Honglian, GE Meitong
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  83-89.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220604901
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      Objective Sweating during summer exercise can easily cause the human body to feel moist and sticky. Therefore, it is important to improve the moisture-wicking capability as well as the heat and humidity comfort of summer sportswear. Sweating and heat dissipation vary from part to part of the body, so different functional fabrics designed in different parts have great benefits for comfort. But the process of sewing fabrics with different characteristics at different positions is complicated and has low production efficiency. Therefore, seamless design and integrated positioning forming technology can be used.

      Method When the yarn density of the surface layer of the fabric was greater than the inner layer, the additional pressure of the surface layer was greater than that of the inner layer, and the moisture can move from the interior to the surface, which was called the differential capillary effect. Based on this effect, 55.5 dtex(14 f) polyester was selected as the ground yarn, and 93.3 dtex(384 f) superfine fiber polyester yarn and 92.2 dtex(72 f) conventional polyester yarn were selected as the veils. Santoni seamless machine was adopted to design 5 different structures of fabrics, then the influence of different yarn types and structures on the fabric's moisture-transfer was investigated.

      Results The graph of contact angle changes with time showed that among the three kinds of yarns, the liquid diffuses fastest in 93.3 dtex(384 f) yarns and slowest in 55.5 dtex(14 f) yarns(Fig. 4). The wicking height experiment showed that the longitudinal wicking effect of the combination of 93.3 dtex(384 f) yarn and 55.5 dtex(14 f) ground yarn was more significant than that of 92.2 dtex(72 f) yarn(Tab. 2). The difference between the liquid diffusion shape obtained from the drip diffusion experiment and the longitudinal and transverse wicking was consistent, indicating that the longitudinal diffusion effect of liquid in the fabric was better(Fig. 5). The accumulative one-way transfer capacity in the MMT water management experiment was F1>F4>F3>F2>F5 from large to small(Fig. 6). The overall moisture management capacity (OMMC) showed that the combined rating of 93.3 dtex(384 f) yarn for the veil and 55.5(14 f) dtex(14 f) yarn for the ground was above grade 3, which had better unidirectional moisture-transfer capacity, F1 and F4 have the best moisture-transfer capacity among the two raw materials(Fig. 6). The fiber diameters of 55.5 dtex(14 f) yarn, 92.2 dtex(72 f) yarn, and 93.3 dtex(384 f) yarn measured were 5.448, 15.548 and 28.343 μm(Tab. 4). It was calculated that the equivalent capillary radius of the three yarns were 0.061 7, 1.757 1 and 3.211 μm, respectively. It was concluded that the capillary pressure difference between 55.5(14 f) dtex yarn and 93.3 dtex(384 f) yarn was 16.647 4 kPa, and that between 55.5 dtex yarn and 92.2 dtex(72 f) yarn is 5.282 4 kPa. This proved that the differential capillary effect of different f-number yarns was significant.

      Conclusion The results showed that 93.3 dtex(384 f) yarn had a higher additional pressure difference than the 92.2 dtex(72 f) yarn group. The superfine polyester yarn group had good unidirectional moisture-tranfer capactity, and the water management rating was above grade 3. In the stitches, the more the number of uniform structures in which the ground yarn and the veil were looped, the more significant the moisture-tranfer effect. Therefore, the structure with more uniform structures were suitable for the areas with more sweat. Compared with the uniform structure, the loose structure with an incomplete loop of the ground yarn was light, thin and permeble, which was suitable for configuration in the transition area. Among the five structures, F1 with uniform structure had the best unidirectional moisture-tranfer capacity, which was suitable for areas with large sweating volume, such as the chest and back; F2 and F4 with loose structure had good moisture-tranfer capacity and were suitable for transition structure; F3 and F5 are thin and permeable, suitable for armpit, side, and other positions.

      Preparation and stab-resistance of bionic scale-like knitted fabrics
      LIU Qing, NIU Li, JIANG Gaoming, MA Pibo
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  90-97.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220605101
      Abstract ( 131 )   HTML ( 9 )   PDF (9426KB) ( 130 )   Save
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      Objective In view of the problems of many layers and poor flexibility of stab equipment in the current market, a bionic scale-like knitted fabric (SLKF) similar to pangolin's overlapping scale structure was knitted from ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) yarns by using flat knitting technology, overcoming the difficulty of knitting complex structure with high-performance yarn. This novel fabric with overlapping scale structure is expected to further improve the stab-resistance.

      Method The forming principle of SLKF was explored through simulation of fabric structure. Through quasi-static stab experiments (Fig. 4), the influences of different puncture positions, directions, scale sizes and puncture tools on the stab-resistance of the SLKF were studied. Through the structure model of a single scale and the change of fabric parameters, the rules of scale area coverage, fabric weight and scale deflection angle changing with the scale size are further clarified. The damage morphology of the SLKF was observed by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, and the damage mechanism of the SLKF was analyzed.

      Results Inspired by the overlapping structure of pangolin (Fig. 1), nine SLKFs were knitted(Fig.2), and the fabric exhibits excellent forming capabilities during the knitting process. Through simulation of the fabric structure, shrinkage of the adjacent loops in the fabric was utilized to form the overlap scale effect (Fig. 3). When stabbing in the overlapping section, or in the 0° direction, the SLKF demonstrated better stab-resistance, mainly by virtue of the large number of coils at the stab edge (Fig. 5). The stab-resistance of nine distinct SLKFs was investigated (Fig. 6), and the findings reveal a positive correlation between scale size and stab-resistance, indicating that larger scales offer enhanced protection. In order to further study the influence of scale size on stab-resistance, structure model of single scale and changes of fabric parameters was explored (Fig. 7), the results showed that the coverage of the total scale area was increased with the increase of the number of rows, the weight of fabric increased linearly with the increase of the number of rows, and the deflection angle of scales decreased gradually with the increase of the number of longitudinal rows. Two different standard knives D1 and D3 were adopted to explore the stab-resistance of SLKF, and the stabbing speed is 10 mm/min. The results demonstrate that the stab-resistance of SLKF under knife D3 is better than that of D1 (Fig. 8), and the reasons for this phenomenon can be explained as follows: under D1, the fabric failure was mainly caused by yarn cutting and tensile, accompanied by yarn extraction; and under D3, the main reasons for fabric failure were mainly extrusion and stretching, accompanied by a small amount of yarn tensile fracture failure(Fig. 9).

      Conclusion In this research, inspired by the overlapping scales structure of pangolin, a bionic SLKF is prepared by UHMWPE yarn, and its forming principle and stab-resistance are discussed. The research shows that the shrinkage of the loops at the scale joint and the separate knitting of the front and back needle beds are the main principles for the formation of SLKFs. Overlapping effect of scales can effectively improve the stab-resistance of the fabric. The stabbing process of the SLKF under the two knives is different, and its damage behavior mainly includes yarn cutting fracture failure and tensile fracture failure. This work can provide reference for the preparation of stab-resistant materials.

      Research on mesh structure of warp-knitting double needle-bed jacquard shoe fabrics
      SUN Yuanyuan, ZHANG Qi, ZHANG Yanting, DING Ningyu, ZUO Lujiao
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  98-104.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220903501
      Abstract ( 105 )   HTML ( 9 )   PDF (6303KB) ( 53 )   Save
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      Objective Warp knitted jacquard mesh structures for shoe making are mostly created using tricot stitch, satin tricot stitch and chain stitch. The stitches are generally elliptical and lack three-dimensional structural features, and mesh structures are simple in style. Based on the characteristics of the double needle-bed jacquard stitching with "1×8" offset signals, the two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) jacquard mesh mechanisms for shoe application were further analyzed, and a 3-D mesh structured shoe fabric was designed and developed on RDPJ6/2 warp-knitting machine, aiming to improve the wearing comfort and fashion appearance of shoe fabrics.

      Method The formation principles of double needle-bed jacquard stitches with 8 offset signals were studied. By analyzing the rules guiding the overlap and underlap, the stitches were categorized as single needle-bed jacquard stitch and double needle-bed jacquard stitch, and the 3-D loop structure and jacquard effect were further studied. The design mechanisms for diamond, rectangle and hexagon of 2-D mesh structure were explored based on the analysis of the underlap of single needle-bed jacquard stitch. Through the combination design of the jacquard structures, the design mechanisms for the single-mesh, double-mesh separation and double-mesh connection for 3-D mesh structures were studied. By selecting the raw material and jacquard stitch, a shoe fabric product with 3-D mesh structure was knitted on the RDPJ6/2 warp-knitting machine.

      Results The results showed that single needle-bed jacquard stitch could be looped on either the front needle bed or the back needle bed to create four jacquard effects, i.e., the thick effect, thin effect, mesh effect and floating line effect (Fig. 2). The underlap of thick/thin/mesh-birdeye point connection jacquard stitch was in the middle layer and it had double-layer jacquard effect, forming a thick, thin or mesh effect on one layer and a birdeye effect on the other layer (Fig. 3). The underlap of birdeye point-birdeye point connection jacquard stitch was also located in the middle layer, and single or multiple birdeye effects were formed on both layers (Fig. 4). The combination design of warp knitting chain stitch, tricot stitch, miss-lapping stitch and two-needle stitch would form 2-D mesh structures with different shapes such as diamond, rectangle and hexagon (Fig. 5). The 3-D mesh structure was classified into two types of 3-D mesh structure on single layer, 3-D mesh structure with two separate meshes on double layers and 3-D mesh structure with underlap-connective meshes on double layers (Fig. 6, Fig. 8, and Fig. 10). The double-layer mesh structure not only increased the three-dimensional diversity of the mesh structure, but also brought better air circulation for the shoe fabric, supplemented by the product of 3-D mesh structure jacquard shoe fabric for verification (Fig. 11).

      Conclusion The double needle-bed jacquard process with 8 offset signals can significantly improve the diversification and 3-D effect of the mesh structures. Innovation in the 3-D mesh structure helps promote the fashion and functionality of warp knitted jacquard shoe fabrics. The three-dimensional mesh structure could have intelligent application prospects by virtue of its good air permeability and three-dimensional structure. In the future, testing experiments on the air permeability and bursting performance of the mesh structure can be carried out to further analyze the intelligent application scenarios of different mesh structures.

      Empty yarn bobbin positioning method based on machine vision
      SHI Weimin, HAN Sijie, TU Jiajia, LU Weijian, DUAN Yutang
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  105-112.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220605501
      Abstract ( 98 )   HTML ( 4 )   PDF (4886KB) ( 55 )   Save
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      Objective In the automatic production line of circular weft knitting robot, the position of the bobbin mouth will change due to the influence of the gravity of the bobbin, the vibration when the bobbin is released, the sliding and other factors during the automatic bobbin changing process of the bobbin changing robot. All these will affect the grasping of the empty bobbin by the mechanical claw. In order to ensure the accurate grasp of the empty yarn bobbin by the mechanical claw, it is necessary to locate the position of the empty yarn bobbin.

      Method Improved Yolov5 model was adopted to frame the position of the bobbin mouth in the picture, then the Sobel edge detection, threshold segmentation, filtering, and closing operations were adopted to process the image of the framed area, and the empty yarn bobbin aperture and center coordinates were obtained by least square fitting. Finally, the pinhole imaging principle of a monocular camera is adopted to locate the bobbin mouth.

      Results In terms of model recognition, the accuracy of the four models experimented in this research was more than 99%. The accuracy of the model with the attention mechanism alone was decreased by 0.1%, but the speed was increased. After adding Ghost module alone, the accuracy was reduced by 0.2% relative to the original model, but the number of parameters was reduced by about half of the volume relative to the original model, and the speed is also increased. The accuracy of the new model with Ghost and CBAM modules is 99.2%, the number of parameters is 3.71 M, and the detection speed is 54.3 frames/s. It can be seen that the improved model maintains high accuracy, and has a smaller volume and faster detection speed. The comprehensive performance is better. In terms of yarn bobbin positioning, the maximum absolute values of yarn mouth positioning errors of the drum changing robot on X axis, Y axis and Z axis were 1.3, 1.9 and 0.7 mm, respectively, and the errors of the three axes were all within the allowable range of errors. Under the same testing environment, the detection time of the positioning method based on deep learning is about 2 s, with contrast to the 5 s detection time of the conventional method. The time efficiency of the proposed method was improved by about 150%. Compared with deep learning, conventional algorithms were more susceptible to the influence of environment, which was prone to interference during contour fitting leading to failure in fitting the yarn bobbin correctly. The deep learning method was shown to be able to eliminate the interference of environment effectively and provide favorable conditions for yarn fitting.

      Conclusion In this paper, a positioning method combining depth learning with conventional image processing is proposed to solve the problem of empty yarn bobbin opening positioning when the yarn bobbin changing truss robot takes empty yarn bobbin from the yarn frame in the automatic production line of circular weft knitting machine. The improved Yolov5 model is adopted to frame the approximate position of the bobbin mouth, and then the information of the empty yarn bobbin mouth is obtained through image processing of conventional algorithms and ellipse contour fitting. The monocular camera ranging principle is adopted to locate the empty yarn bobbin mouth. The experiment proves that the improved model has smaller volume and higher accuracy, and the positioning result error is also within the allowable range, which basically meets the requirements of empty yarn bobbin positioning function of the yarn bobbin changing truss robot, providing a reference for the improvement and development of automatic yarn bobbin changing technology in the textile industry.

      Three-dimensional simulation of single jacquard warp knitted shoe fabrics based on spring-mass model
      YANG Meiling, JIANG Gaoming, WANG Ting, LI Bingxian
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  113-119.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220812301
      Abstract ( 108 )   HTML ( 15 )   PDF (3870KB) ( 41 )   Save
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      Objective In order to explore the mesh deformation principle in the warp knitted jacquard spacer shoe material fabric, the interaction mechanism of the loops on both sides of the mesh in the warp knitted single needle bed fabric is used to form a three-dimensional spring-mass particle tensile action geometric model between the loops of the surface layer, the bottom layer and the middle spacer layer. The tensile mechanical deformation equation and offset distance between the loops in the jacquard spacer shoe fabric are obtained to improve the three-dimensional (3-D) deformation simulation effect of single jacquard warp knitted double needle bed interval jacquard shoe fabric.

      Method Aiming at the mesh area division design of warp knitted jacquard spacer shoe fabric, the jacquard principle of single jacquard comb in fabric forming is studied, and the jacquard artwork is designed and drawn. Using the quadratic Bezier curve to establish the unit loop model, and aiming at the three-dimensional structure of the spacer shoe fabric, the three-dimensional spring-mass model that conforms to the actual fabric structure is constructed, including the shearing spring, structural spring, and bending spring. The offset is worked on by the explicit integration method.

      Results The single jacquard comb performs jacquard action on one side of the fabric of the spacer shoe fabric, forming a rich upper appearance through thick, thin and mesh fabric effects. The functional areas of the single jacquard warp knitted spacer vamp are divided (Fig. 1). Using red, white and green to form a single jacquard artwork, it shows fabric structures with different mesh sizes and thicknesses (Fig. 2). Using the natural transition principle of the tangent line of the quadratic Bezier curve, the motion track value of the continuous points of the loop at the tangent line is calculated. A total of 8 shape point control unit loops are adopted to build a three-dimensional geometric model of the loop, which more realistically shows the bending shape of the loop (Fig. 3, Fig. 4). On the basis of the construction principle of the two-dimensional spring-mass model adopted by the conventional warp knitted single needle bed, a three-dimensional spring-mass model based on the double needle bed spacer shoe fabric is established. Three types of spring particle systems are shown, including thick and thin mesh structures formed by spacer wire, chain knitting bottom comb and single jacquard (Fig. 6). According to the influence between spring and masses in the model, the force equation of the loop is established based on Newton's mechanical theorem, and the external force is ignored. The elastic deformation force and damping force between masses are calculated, and the explicit Euler method and midpoint method that are conducive to improving the simulation speed are selected to conduct particle velocity and displacement distance within unit time step. Three improvement measures are put forward for the easily occurring overshoot phenomenon. JavaScript and C# programming language are adopted to program the 3-D simulation of single jacquard warp knitted spacer shoe fabric, and the simulation is compared with the real picture to verify the effectiveness of the mechanical model simulation method.

      Conclusion Based on the real state of the fabric, the single jacquard warp knitted shoe fabrics was simulated for deformation, Newton's laws of mechanics were adopted to establish the particle grid system. The influence range of the force of a single loop particle was sorted out, which verified the feasibility of the deformation simulation based on the three-dimensional spring-mass model, and improved the deformation simulation efficiency of the jacquard warp knitted shoe fabrics. The deformation simulation of warp knitted double jacquard spacer shoe fabric and triple jacquard spacer shoe fabric needs further research and realization.

      Dyeing and Finishing & Chemicals
      Establishment and application of mass spectral database for natural dyes
      SHOU Chenchao, NARENGGAOWA , GAO Suyun, LIU Jian, ZHAO Feng
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  120-131.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220907501
      Abstract ( 103 )   HTML ( 7 )   PDF (6300KB) ( 79 )   Save
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      Objective There are different types of natural dyes, including indoles, anthraquinones, naphthoquinones, flavonoids, alkaloids, curcumins, and so on. Facing a large number of textile culture relics, it is impossible to identify quickly the dye compounds only by manual identification using spectral or chromatographic analysis techniques. This research aims to establish a mass spectral database of natural dyes. Using the retrieval technology of the mass spectrum database, the components of natural dyes in textile cultural relics would be identified quickly, bringing efficiency and convenience for the identification of natural dyes in the future.

      Method In this study, standard natural dye compounds were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), and mass spectrum data were collected. The natural dye mass spectral database was established using National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) spectral database software. The search parameters of the software were optimized to achieve the best search results. By comparing the relative peak strength and mass of the unknown mass spectrum with the standard mass spectrum in the database, the similarity between them was identified, and the search result was finally determined.

      Results Samples of the natural dyes were analyzed by HPLC-MS to obtain their total ion chromatogram data (Tab. 1). The appropriate chromatographic peak was selected using Thermo Xcalibur Qual Browser software (Fig. 1), the MS/MS spectra of natural dye compounds were exported to NIST MS Search 2.3 software before entering the information of the compounds such as name, formula, molecular weight, synonyms, detection ion mode, retention time, and chemical structure into the self-built mass spectral database. The above operations were repeated until the mass spectral database was established. In order to identify the molecular structure of dye compounds, it is necessary to analyze the mechanism of MS/MS fragmentation. Fragmentation pathways of alizarin, quercetin and luteolin were analyzed, and the derivation of ion information of dye molecular fragments and molecular fragmentation pathway in secondary mass spectral provided an important reference for the identification of natural dye compounds. Using the self-built mass spectrum database, some natural dyes from two textile cultural relics were quickly and accurately identified and the plant origins of the dyes were inferred. In the dye identification of the tricolor sachet, the search result of the mass spectral database showed that the red silk thread contained alizarin and purpurin (Fig. 10), which could be inferred as madder dyeing. The yellow silk thread contained jatrorrhizine and berberine (Fig. 11), and it was inferred as barberry dyeing. In the dye identification of the silk with striped and floral design, the search results of the mass spectral database showed that the yellow silk thread contained luteolin and apigenin (Fig. 12), which was identified as weld dyeing. In addition, in the retrieval process of cultural relics, the match and reverse match scores were both greater than 800, and the matching probability was more than 95%, which was a high score and could substantially confirm the existence of substances.

      Conclusion The establishment of natural dye mass spectral database can not only shorten the time of dye molecular structure analysis, facilitate fast and accurate identification of dyes in textile cultural relics, but can also reduce the dependence on standard products in dye analysis and reduce the operating cost of the laboratory. This study proved the feasibility and potential of the application of the mass spectral database retrieval technology to the identification of natural dyes and provided a new idea for the follow-up research of natural dyes.

      Optimization of plasma cold pad-batch degreasing/bleaching process for cotton spunlace nonwoven by response surface method
      LIU Juntao, SUN Ting, TU Hu, HU Min, ZHANG Ruquan, SUN Lei, LUO Xia, JI Hua
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  132-141.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220709501
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      Objective Cotton fiber is a natural cellulose fiber with a wide range of applications. Cotton spunlace nonwovens as a cotton fiber product are widely used in medical textile and personal protection. However, for degreasing and bleaching of cotton spunlace nonwovens, the conventional cold pad-batch process faces the problems of long processing time and low production efficiency. Therefore, novel technologies need to be developed to reduce cold pad-batch time and improve production efficiency.

      Method The cotton spunlace nonwovens were plasma treated using PG-10000F plasma equipment, and the treatment solution prepared from 4 g/L NaOH, 6 g/L H2O2, 2 g/L tetraacetylethylenediamine(TAED), and 2 g/L fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether was stirred evenly by magnetic stirring. After plasma treatment, the cotton spunlace nonwoven was immediately put into a self-sealing bag containing hydrogen peroxide activation solution with a bath ratio of 1∶20, then reacted within a certain time from 0 to 24 h at 30 ℃. The cotton spunlace nonwoven was then soaked in warm water at 60 ℃, and washed with water twice for removing impurities. Finally, the degreased/bleached cotton nonwoven fabric was obtained after drying in an oven at 40 ℃ for 4 h.

      Results The pores formed by plasma treatment were properly eliminated in the bleaching process (Fig. 3). Plasma treatment and hydrogen peroxide activation treatment were adopted to smooth the fiber surface (Fig. 4), while the plasma treatment removed lipid substances from the surface of cotton fibers and improve the hydrophilicity of cotton fibers (Fig. 5). Plasma treatment time and cold pad-batch time were unchanged for all samples, and the material whiteness was the highest when the plasma treatment power was at 2 kW (Fig. 6(a)) and the plasma treatment time was 10 s (Fig. 6(b)). Plasma treatment power and plasma treatment time remained unchanged, and there was no significant change in whiteness after 6 h of cold pad-batch time (Fig. 6(c)). As the plasma treatment power increased, the water absorption showed an upward trend, and gradually flattened after the power reached 2 kW (Fig. 7(a)). The plasma treatment time had little influence on the water absorption of the material (Fig. 7(b)). The water absorption showed an upward trend with the increased cold pad-batch time, and the first 2 h increased the fastest (Fig. 7(c)). The plasma treatment power displayed no significant influence on the material strength (Fig. 8(a)). With the prolongation of plasma treatment time, the strength showed a decreasing trend, and had no significant change after 15 s (Fig. 8(b)). With the prolongation of cold pad-batch time, the material strength decreased rapidly within 4 h, and then gradually flattened (Fig. 8(c)). According to response surface analysis, plasma treatment power and plasma treatment time showed no significant influence on the whiteness of cotton spunlace nonwovens (Fig. 9). The cold pad-batch time had the greatest influence on the whiteness of nonwovens, and the whiteness increased rapidly at first and then decreased slowly with the increase of the cold pad-batch time (Fig. 10). The whiteness increases first and then decreased with the plasma treatment time, and the increased and decreased proportion of whiteness was almost the same (Fig. 11). When the whiteness of the response value was set to the maximum (76%), the optimal condition from the response surface optimization implied the plasma treatment power was 1.828 kW, and the plasma treatment time was 10.804 s. When the cold reactor time was 6.454 h, the whiteness was 75.872%, R2=0.923 5, indicating an accurate model.

      Conclusion In summary, plasma treatment could moderately remove the cotton seed shell and other foreign impurities on the surface of cotton spunlace grey nonwoven fabrics. At the same time, lipid substances were removed from the surface of cotton fiber after plasma treatment, the number of hydrophilic groups such as hydroxyl increased, and the water absorption of cotton spunlace nonwovens were improved. Plasma treatment could promote the degreasing and bleaching process. Although the plasma cold pad-batch treatment process could hardly increase the treated cotton spunlace nonwovens whiteness, the cold pad-batch time were shorted from 8 h to 6.5 h compared with the conventional cold pad-batch process, which could improve the production efficiency.

      Preparation and electromagnetic shielding performance of hollow magnetic Fe3O4 nanosphere/MXene composite cotton fabrics
      ZHENG Xianhong, TANG Jinhao, LI Changlong, WANG Wei
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  142-150.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220804501
      Abstract ( 130 )   HTML ( 11 )   PDF (40011KB) ( 102 )   Save
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      Objective Lightweight, flexible, air permeable and high-performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are urgently required to solve the increasingly serious electromagnetic radiation pollution. Transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes) have attracted much attention in the area of EMI shielding because of their high metallic electrical conductivity. However, the MXene modified fabrics usually exhibited reflection-dominant EMI shielding mechanism because of the impedance mismatch. Therefore, it is still a critical challenge to fabricate high-performance MXene-based EMI shielding fabrics with tunable EMI shielding performance and mechanism.

      Method Constructing multilayer heterogeneous structure of hollow magnetic Fe3O4 nanospheres (HFOs)/MXene is an efficient approach to improve and tune the EMI shielding performance of the composite fabrics, because the HFOs and MXene can absorb the electromagnetic waves by means of the magnetic loss and conductive loss, respectively. More importantly, the electromagnetic waves will be attenuated in the multilayer heterogeneous structure due to the multiple reflections. However, the paper proposed relatively few studies devote to studying the EMI shielding performance of HFOs/MXene modified fabrics. Herein, the paper proposed a layer-by-layer assembly strategy to construct multilayer heterogeneous structure of hollow magnetic Fe3O4 nanospheres/MXene on the cotton woven fabrics to fabricate high-performance EMI shielding fabrics.

      Results HFOs were prepared by hydrothermal method, which exhibited the hollow morphology (with a diameter of (271.9±4.6) nm) with the inverse spinel structure (Fig. 2). Fe3O4/MXene modified fabrics were fabricated by the layer-by-layer assembly. The cotton fabrics were firstly deposited with MXene nanosheets by the spray-coating method. The HFOs were positively charged by using the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), which were deposited on the MXene modified fabrics by the electrostatic attraction to fabricate the HFOs/MXene composite fabrics. The layer-by-layer assembly was repeated for 11 cycles to increase the loading of active materials. The HFOs and MXene were uniformly deposited on the fabrics and exhibited MXene-dominant structure (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5), which facilitated constructing complete electrically conductive networks in the composite fabrics. The sheet resistance of the composite fabric was decreased from (5 800±85) Ω/□ to (10.5±1.7) Ω/□ when the assembling cycle increased from 1 to 11 (Fig. 8), which was attributed to the increased MXene loading and the corresponding completed electrically conductive networks. In addition, the composite fabric demonstrated good air permeability (Fig. 9). The HFOs/MXene composite cotton fabrics also demonstrated good EMI shielding performances. The EMI shielding performance of the fabric was improved with the assembling cycles, and the maximum EMI shielding effectiveness was up to (29.03±0.3) dB (Fig. 10 and Fig. 11). The absorption EMI shielding effectiveness was higher than reflection EMI shielding effectiveness for all the composite fabrics. More importantly, the EMI shielding mechanism was tunable for the composite fabrics, and the EMI shielding mechanism changed from absorption-dominant to reflection-dominant when the HFOs/MXene assembling cycles was more than 5 (Fig. 12). The tunable EMI shielding mechanism of the HFOs/MXene composite cotton fabrics may be attributed to the transition from the impedance match to impedance mismatch.

      Conclusion The good EMI shielding performance of the HFOs/MXene composite fabric is attributed to the synergistic effects between hollow magnetic Fe3O4 nanospheres and MXene, and the multilayer heterogeneous structure, including the conductive loss from MXene nanosheets, magnetic loss of HFOs and inner multiple reflection from the multilayer heterogeneous structure. The high electrical conductivity and good EMI shielding performance of HFOs/MXene composite cotton fabric makes is attractive in the application of flexible electromagnetic protection, wearable heater, and sensors.

      Preparation and properties of high temperature self-crosslinked anti-dripping and flame-retardant polyester fabric
      XIAO Yunchao, YANG Yaru, GUO Jianxin, WANG Tongyao, TIAN Qiang
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  151-159.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220906301
      Abstract ( 121 )   HTML ( 10 )   PDF (7082KB) ( 73 )   Save
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      Objective Fire hazard has caused great losses to human life and property, and textile fire is one of the main causes of fire disaster. As the mostly used chemical fiber in the world, polyester fiber is widely used in clothing, home textiles, transportation and other fields. However, it is a flammable material, and its burning is accompanied with serious dripping of droplets, which is prone to cause secondary injuries and fire spread. Therefore, it is of great significance to modify the polyester fabrics for flame-retardant and anti-dripping performance.

      Method Alkali washing and plasma treatment were employed to pretreat polyester(PET) fabric, which activated and etched the PET fiber, so as to improve the infiltration and adhesion of flame-retardant as well as the flame-retardant durability. After that, methyl phosphonic acid (5-ethyl-2-methyl-2-oxo-1,3,2-dioxo-5-yl) methyl methyl ester (EMD) and N-phenylmaleimide (N-PMI) were compounded to form a phosphorus-nitrogen synergistic system for the leaching treatment of polyester fabric. By combining the flame-retardant of EMD with the crosslinking and char formation promotion property of N-PMI, the flame-retardant and anti-dripping performance of polyester fabric could be simultaneously improved.

      Results Scanning electronic microscopy(SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) results showed that the impurities on the surface of the polyester fabric were significantly reduced after alkali washing, and the grooves generated by plasma etching were obviously visible in the fiber surface (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). After leaching and finishing, EMD and N-PMI were uniformly adhered to the surface of PET fiber. The limiting oxygen index (LOI) and vertical burning test results showed that the LOI value of PET-EMD (PET treated with EMD only) was significantly increased, but the droplet phenomenon was not improved (Tab. 2). The LOI value of PET-N-PMI (PET treated with N-PMI only) was not increased much, but the droplet dripping is obviously reduced. In contrast, the flame-retardant and anti-dripping performance of polyester fabric treated by both EMD and N-PMI (PET-E+N) were enhanced with different features. The LOI value of PET-E+N reached 35.1% (83.8% higher than that of pure polyester fabric), which was higher than that of PET-EMD and PET-N-PMI, indicating the synergistic flame-retardant performance of EMD and N-PMI. In addition, PET-E+N extinguished immediately after leaving the fire source, and no dripping occurred during the combustion process, reaching flame-retardant grade B1. The introduction of N-PMI can promote the char formation of PET, and the char residues of PET-N-PMI at high temperature were 1.2 times higher than that of pure PET (Fig. 3). Furthermore, cone calorimeter test suggested that the peak heat release rate and total heat release of PET-E+N were 48.6% and 20.8% lower than that of pure PET, respectively (Fig. 4 and Tab. 4). The results also demonstrated that EMD would provide flame suppression effect, and N-PMI could promote the char formation, therefore, PET-E+N displayed outstanding barrier effect. PET-E+N burned to form a dense, continuous and porous char layer (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6), playing a critical role in blocking and protecting during combustion and implying that PET-E+N exhibits a typical condensed phase flame-retardant mechanism. Moreover, PET-N-PMI and PET-E+N both displayed an apparent exothermic peak (around 265 ℃) after the melting peak(Fig. 7), indicating that the existence of N-PMI promoted the crosslinking of PET during melting and played a role of "high temperature self-crosslinking". This is believed the deep reason for anti-dripping effect induced by N-PMI.

      Conclusion On the basis of alkali washing and plasma pretreatment, EMD and N-PMI were selected to construct a new phosphorus-nitrogen synergistic flame-retardant system with the characteristics of "intelligent self-crosslinking” and employed to improve the flame-retardant and anti-dripping performane of polyester fabrics. The flame-retardant mechanism was deeply studied. Results show that the constructed flame-retardant system could effectively improve the flame-retardant and anti-dripping performane of polyester fabrics. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties and air permeability of the fabric are not obviously affected. This study provides a theoretical basis for flame-retardant and anti-dripping modification of polyester fabric.

      Preparation and properties of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics with ultraviolet/ammonia dual responsiveness
      WANG Luyan, ZHANG Caining, ZHAO Qianqian, MA Zhihao, WANG Xuman
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  160-166.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20221003501
      Abstract ( 75 )   HTML ( 9 )   PDF (3426KB) ( 32 )   Save
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      Objective Because of their wide range of applications, surfaces with switchable wettability between superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity brought about by external stimuli have attracted intensive research attention. However, almost all of these surfaces are responsive to only single external stimuli, which limits the applications of wettability switching surfaces. Compared with single stimuli surfaces, the surfaces with dual or multiple stimuli have better environmental adaptability. Therefore, superhydrophobic surfaces with dual or multiple stimuli responsiveness have become a research focus. This study is proposed to prepare superhydrophobic cotton fabrics with ultraviolet/ammonia dual responsiveness.

      Method Ferrous sulfate and ethanedioic acid were used as the raw materials. FeC2O4 was prepared and then was calcined in a muffle furnace at 300 °C for 3 h before preparing ferric oxide particles. The ferric oxide particles, anhydrous ethanol, and stearic acid were added into a flask and stirred at ambient temperature for 0.5 h, and then mixed with the anhydrous ethanol suspension of chitosan before hydrophobic suspension was obtained. Cotton fabrics were dipped in the hydrophobic suspension and dispersed in an ultrasonic bath for 10 min, followed by drying in an oven at 60 °C to obtain the superhydrophobic cotton fabrics. Their morphologies and surface chemical compositions were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron micro-scopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The influences of ultraviolet and ammonia on the wettability of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics were investigated, and the influence of temperature on the recovery of their superhydrophobicity was studied.

      Results The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the prepared ferric oxide was γ-Fe2O3 (Fig. 1). Water contact angle measure results showed that the prepared cotton fabric possessed good superhydrophobicity, and its water contact angle was 153.94° (Fig. 5). SEM analysis showed that γ-Fe2O3 particles and chitosan formed nanoscale and microscale rough structure on cotton fibers (Fig. 3). FT-IR and EDS analysis revealed that chitosan and stearic acid with low surface energy covered on the surface of cotton fibres (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3(b)). The superhydrophobicity of the cotton fabrics was obtained by combining micro-nano hierarchical rough structure and low surface energy material. After 28 h of ultraviolet irradiation, the as-prepared fabric changed from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic (Fig. 6), and under the synergical effect of ultraviolet irradiation and H2O2 solution, the superhydrophobic cotton fabric converted to superhydrophilic within 7 h (Fig. 7). The above superhydrophilic fabric recovered to superhydrophobicity after standing in the dark for 28 d (Fig. 8). The superhydrophobicity recovery time decreased with the increasing of recovery temperature. In particular, the superhydrophilic surface converted to superhydrophobic when exposed to 120 ℃ for 40 min (Fig. 9). Meanwhile, the superhydrophobic cotton fabric changed from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic when it was induced by ammonia for 5 s (Fig. 10). The above superhydrophilic fabric also recovered to superhydrophobic at ambient temperature (Fig. 11). The superhydrophobicity recovery time also decreased with increasing recovery temperature. For instance, the superhydrophilic fabric recovered to superhydrophobic when exposed to 80 ℃ for 50 min (Fig. 11).

      Conclusion The prepared cotton fabrics possess good superhydrophobicity. Under ultraviolet irradiation and in ammonia atmosphere, the cotton fabrics could change from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic, and the process is reversable. The superhydrophobicity recovery time is decreased with the increasing of recovery temperature. The proposed preparation method is simple and easy, and it can be easily extended to other surfaces. The fact that superhydrophobic surfaces have the capability to switch the wettability by ultraviolet or ammonia, and has potential applications in oil-water separation, microfluidic switching, drug delivery, and other similar applications.

      Preparation of porous TiO2 particles and their adsorption for ionic dyes
      HUANG Biao, ZHENG Li'na, QIN Yan, CHENG Yujun, LI Chengcai, ZHU Hailin, LIU Guojin
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  167-175.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20221103501
      Abstract ( 98 )   HTML ( 8 )   PDF (5203KB) ( 70 )   Save
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      Objective The utilization rate of dyes is unable to reach 100% in practical situations, which inevitably leads to residual dyes in the water discharged after dyeing, causing serious water pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a water treatment technology that can effectively treat dye wastewater. Aiming at the treatment of ionic dyes in printing and dyeing wastewater, porous titana (TiO2) particles were used as adsorbent to adsorb dyes.

      Method In addition to the characteristics of stable chemical properties, low price, easy availability, and no toxicity, TiO2 particles also have the unique characteristic of photocatalysis. Therefore, TiO2 particles are often adopted to adsorb and catalyze dyes in wastewater. Through photocatalysis, the dye can be degraded, so that the TiO2 particles can be reused. With tetrabutyl orthotitanate as titanium source, porous TiO2 particles with different potentials were prepared by hydrothermal method using different templates, and then the crystal form of TiO2 particles was controlled by high-temperature calcination. The potential, morphology and crystal form of TiO2 were analyzed by solid surface Zeta potential test, field emission scanning electron microscopy(FETEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The dye concentration and adsorbent dosage were optimized by adsorption test, and the reuse performance of TiO2 particles was explored.

      Results Positively charged TiO2 particles (G-TiO2) adsorb anionic dyes only other than cationic dyes at all, while the negatively charged TiO2 particles (Y-TiO2) only adsorb cationic dyes other than anionic dyes (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4). The adsorption mechanism follows the electrostatic adsorption mechanism. G-TiO2 has a porous spherical structure formed by the aggregation of numerous particles, about 93% of which are microspheres with a particle size of 200-500 nm. Y-TiO2 is in the state of fine particle aggregation, and about 91% of which are microspheres with a particle size of 50-100 nm (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7). The crystal forms of the two kinds of TiO2 particles after calcination are anatase, which have photocatalytic properties (Fig. 9). Under the same experimental conditions, the adsorption rate of 100 mg/L Congo Red dye by 100 mg G-TiO2 can reach 99.5%, and that of 20 mg/L Methylene Blue dye by 100 mg Y-TiO2 can reach 93.5% (Fig. 11). In the cycle experiment, the adsorption rate of Congo Red dye by G-TiO2 decreased by about 12.6% after four cycles, while that of Methylene Blue dye by Y-TiO2 decreased by about 17% after five cycles (Fig. 13).

      Conclusion Two kinds of porous TiO2 particles adsorbents were prepared by changing the type of template in the hydrothermal reaction. The adsorbents not only retain the capillary adsorption of conventional porous TiO2 particles on dyes, but also increase the electrostatic adsorption, which can realize the rapid adsorption of ionic dyes in printing and dyeing wastewater. The adsorbents can be chemically modified subsequently to have improved photocatalytic performance, and can also be loaded on polymer films or nonwovens for specific applications. This study will provide strategic support for the treatment of ionic dye wastewater.

      Apparel Engineering
      Correlation analysis on thermal resistance of inflatable thermal composite fabrics and air gap thickness
      MIAO Xue, WANG Yongjin, WANG Fangming
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  176-182.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220907101
      Abstract ( 128 )   HTML ( 18 )   PDF (3405KB) ( 102 )   Save
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      Objective Inflatable clothing is a type of warm keeping clothing that replaces down with air because the thermal conductivity of stationary air is the smallest, and inflatable clothing is constantly developed and designed using this principle. However, there is currently less research on inflatable fabrics, and it is necessary to explore the relationship between the thickness of the air gap inside the fabric and the thermal resistance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to grasp the relationship among inflation volume, the thickness of air layer and the thermal resistance, and to establish relevant models to provide theoretical reference and application value for enterprises and researchers.

      Method This research selected 12 different types of commercial inflatable fabrics, and evaluated the thermal resistance of these inflation fabrics with 5 different inflation volumes of 0%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 100%. Statistics analysis of experimental results was performed through single-factor analysis, correlation analysis, fitting regression analysis and other methods to understand the relationship among the three.

      Results The experimental results show that the greater the inflation volumes, the greater the thickness of the air gap, and the more linear distribution of the two. The regression equation was obtained (Fig. 5). When the inflation volume was small, the difference in the air gap thickness between the fabrics was small, and the greater the inflation volume led to the more significant difference in the air gap thickness, and this was true for different fabrics (Fig. 3). The thermal resistance of the aerated fabric increased with the increase of the inflation volume (Fig. 4), and the thermal resistance was affected by the performance of the fabric itself. There were significant differences in different inflation states. As an example to illustrate, fabric 10# was thicker and the thermal resistance was larger. Overall, the thermal resistance of the aerated fabric rose and then stabilized with the increase of the inflation volumes, and a Logistic model was established between the two. When the inflation volume was within 50%, the thermal resistance changes were more significant, the thermal insulation effect was significant, and with the continuous increase of the inflation volume, the thermal resistance value gradually stabilized (Fig. 6). Logistic model was established between the air gap thickness and the thermal resistance, and the inflation thermal resistance increased with the increase of the inflation volumes, showing a trend of first significantly increasing and then becoming stable (Fig. 7). When the air gap thickness was about 20 mm, the thermal insulation performance reached the best.

      Conclusion By thickness and thermal resistance tests, this paper explores the relationship between different inflation volumes, air gap thicknesses and thermal resistance, establishes a relationship model, and draws the following conclusions. The greater the inflation volume, the greater the air gap thickness, and the more linear distribution of the two. The relationship between thermal resistance, inflation volume and air gap thickness demonstrates a trend of first increasing significantly and then tending to stabilize, and an optimal Logistic model is established. The thermal resistance changes greatly when the inflation volume is less than 50%, and the thermal resistance gradually stabilizes when the inflation volume is greater than 50%. When the air gap thickness is around 20 mm, the inflatable fabric has the best thermal performance. This paper also confirms by experiments that the inflatable clothing fabric has temperature regulation and warm keeping performance, and there is a certain regularity of the air gap thickness and thermal resistance. The research findings provide data reference for researchers of related materials, and the overall warm keeping of inflatable clothing is affected by a variety of factors, and there is still a lot of research space that can also be used as the direction of future research.

      Design and evaluation of suspenders for fire-fighting protective clothing considering upper limb mobility
      YANG Yudie, LI Chengzhang, JIN Jian, ZHENG Jingjing
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  183-189.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220904301
      Abstract ( 119 )   HTML ( 17 )   PDF (3780KB) ( 59 )   Save
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      Objective The fire-fighting protective clothing suspenders are adopted to fix and tighten the protective clothing pants, and have a restrictive effect on the shoulder activities when wearing. Under the premise of ensuring safety and protection, a reasonable and optimized design of the suspenders and a comparison between the original and the optimized suspenders were carried out through objective experiments and subjective evaluation so as to improve the overall ergonomics of the fire-fighting protective clothing, reduce firefighters' occupational injuries and improve their work efficiency.

      Method A field survey and questionnaire were conducted. According to the actual needs of firefighters, three optimized suspender designs, i.e. H-shape, X-shape and Y-shape, were proposed. Through objective three-dimensional motion capture experiments and subjective feeling experiments, the scores of maximum shoulder joint movement angle under four movements, movement efficiency of arm flexion and extension and outreach, activity flexibility and comfort of 11 subjects were obtained, and their advantages and disadvantages were comprehensively analyzed and discussed.

      Results The features of the innovative design of the fire-fighting protective clothing suspenders are summarized (Tab. 2). Style 1 was an H-shaped suspender that incorporates a carabiner and vest-style design, style 2 an X-shaped suspender with a large piece of fabric to hold the cross-webbing, and style 3 a Y-shaped suspender with a single design on the back. The results of the maximum shoulder joint movement angles are summarized (Tab. 4), and it is clear that any of the suspenders would limit the subject's shoulder joint movement. For each movement, style 1 showed the best mobility and style 2 followed. For style 3, the maximum shoulder joint movement angle during arm flexion and extension and outreach was not significantly different from the original style, while the movement angle was smaller than the original model during walking at constant speed and running at constant speed. The time required for the subjects to wear the various suspenders and complete the specified movements was tested. The results showed that there was a difference in the efficiency of the subjects in completing the specified movements wearing the four suspenders, in the sequence (from high to low) of style 1, style 2, style 3 and the original style, and the unit movement time of the optimal style 1 was 12.39% and 14.60% shorter in arm flexion and extension and outreach, respectively, compared with the original style. The scores of subjective flexibility and comfort are summarized (Tab. 7). From the subjective scores, the subjects' evaluations of upper limb flexibility were consistent with the objective experimental results. In terms of subjective comfort, style 1 and style 2 were significantly better than the original style and style 3. In the experiment, the subjects were asked to evaluate the subjective comfort of four specific parts-neck, shoulder, chest and back (Fig. 5). The results showed that adding elastic fabric could improve the comfort of the shoulder, but on the other hand, the fabric stitching area was too high, which might cause discomfort to the neck. While the style of the suspenders has little effect on the comfort of the chest, the double root design on the back is still a better choice. Overall, all three improved suspenders have merits, and style 1 shows the highest flexibility and comfort.

      Conclusion In summary, H-type style 1 has the best effect, both from subjects' upper limb mobility is effectively improved and better than X-shaped style 2 and Y-shaped style 3, the fire-fighting protective clothing suspenders have restrictions on shoulder joint movement, adding elastic fabric in it can weaken this restriction, disperse the shoulder and back pressure, and improve the movement efficiency and subjective comfort, and double root design on the back shows better mobility and comfort compared with the single root. This paper proposes innovative designs for fire-fighting protective clothing suspenders and applies objective methods to evaluate the ergonomics of these suspenders and analyze the influences of different suspenders configurations on upper limb mobility. This paper is expected to provide a reference for the optimal design and evaluation of fire-fighting protective clothing suspenders to improve the wearing performance of fire-fighting protective clothing. The follow-up study should consider a variety of factors such as limb mobility and hygrothermal comfort, and study the materials of fabrics, application parts, and the width of suspenders.

      Machinery & Accessories
      Optimization of detaching roller hybrid drive system for cotton comber
      LIU Jinru, LI Xinrong, WANG Hao, SHI Shuaixing
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  190-198.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220601201
      Abstract ( 82 )   HTML ( 9 )   PDF (3849KB) ( 34 )   Save
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      Objective The detaching roller is the core mechanism of the comber. In the process of combing, it needs to complete a high-speed periodic motion that follows the "rise-return-dwell" pattern. Thus, there are stringent requirements on kinematics and dynamics performances of the transmission mechanism of the detaching roller. The conventional mechanical driving mode can generate a large impact and vibrations, and it is difficult to further improve its speed. Therefore, it is particularly important to overcome the shortcomings of the existing drive mode, including long drive chain, high vibration and noise.

      Method The paper analyzed the separation and jointing process of comber, and put forward the key points in movement of detaching roller. The segmented fitting method was adopted to fit them, yielding the optimal movement law of detaching roller. The number of teeth of each gear in the system was optimized based on the dynamic analysis of the gear transmission system of detaching roller. Combined with kinematics analysis and relevant requirements, the motions of two servo motors were then planned and the speed curves of the servo motors were determined. The theoretical expectation was verified by software simulation and test evaluation.

      Results The curve of displacement of the detaching roller conformed to the "rise-return-dwell" pattern with the maximum error being 0.30 mm, which satisfied the requirements of flock detachment and overlap. The velocity and acceleration at the starting and terminal points were zero, and the detaching roller did not produce rigid or a flexible impact (Fig. 2). Therefore, the fitting results of the motion curve for the detaching roller were ideal. It can be seen from transmission system that, after optimization, the vibration acceleration of most of gears was reduced to varying degrees, and the sum of root mean square vibration accelerations of all gears in the transmission system was reduced by 18.21% compared with the original, achieving the effect of vibration reduction. Vibration accelerations of some gears in the transmission system showed that the speed of the servo motor connected to the sun gear s is always positive, and the speed of the servo motor connected to gear 1 was always negative, that is, both servo motors operate in one direction. Therefore, the motion planning of the servo motor meets the design requirements. In addition, through the results of ADAMS simulation, it can be seen that the detaching roller motion curve obtained by simulation was basically consistent with the motion curve obtained by theoretical calculation. Therefore, the detaching roller drive system designed can make the movement of the detaching roller meet the process requirements. Finally, according to the experimental results, it can be seen that the overall errors between the displacement curve of the detaching roller obtained from the experiment and the theoretical calculation and simulation results was very small, which verified that the detaching roller drive system can replace the conventional mechanical structure, overcome the problems of its long transmission chain and large vibration noise, and complete the drive of the detaching roller. From displacements of different detaching rollers, displacement curves can be obtained by changing the motion law of the servo motor, verifing that the hybrid drive mode of the detaching roller can make the detaching roller meet different process requirements.

      Conclusion In this paper, the hybrid drive system of the detaching roller is studied. The driving system can render the motion of the detaching roller flexible. It solves the problems of the long drive chain of the existing detaching roller drive mechanism and the difficulty in adjusting the motion law of the detaching roller. However, this study still needs to be improved. For example, this study considered only the degrees of freedom in the torsional direction in the dynamic model of the driving system of the detaching roller, which is sufficient for engineering. In future research, more factors should be considered to build a dynamic model with multiple degrees of freedom to better reflect the empirical situation.

      Empty tube state detection method of intubation robot
      DAI Ning, LIANG Huijiang, HU Xudong, QI Dongming, XU Yushan, TU Jiajia, SHI Weimin
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  199-207.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220506701
      Abstract ( 88 )   HTML ( 7 )   PDF (9037KB) ( 37 )   Save
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      Objective Manual tube change in winding requires workers for continuous inspection to observe the quantity of tube yarn used in each spindle, which is time-consuming and laborious. It is now possible to solve this problem by using intubation robot to carry out intubation. In this research, an empty tube state detection method based on image recognition is proposed to monitor whether a yarn tube is in each position evenly arranged in the tube storage discs.

      Method The empty tube inspection mechanism embedded with a control system and a camera module is fixed on the vertical mechanical column, moving horizontally with the intubation robot. By capturing the spindle position signal sent by the intubation robot, the embedded system can complete the image acquisition of the spindle position, carry out image processing by the learning, adjustment, block and localization, correction processing links, and transmit the real-time situation of the tube yarn in each row of holes after processing to the intubation robot by the communication interface.

      Results After the test preparation stage is completed, the image of the storage tube yarn disc at the best shooting position is captured according to the external interrupt signal triggered by the intubation robot, and the empty tube detection algorithm is called for real-time operation. In order to increase the visibility of the detection results, the identified tube storage yarn disc, tube yarn hole and tube are marked with red, blue and green outlines respectively. In order to facilitate the test and analysis of the experimental detection results, the center position and radius of the storage tube yarn disc, storage tube yarn hole, and yarn tube is stored in the external flash memory chip in real-time according to the processing results of empty tube detection algorithm. The tubes in the storage tube yarn disc are increased and decreased repeatedly and tested repeatedly. Finally, the detection results are calculated for statistics. It can be seen from the start recognition time and the end recognition time that the whole recognition process is only 160 ms, and the image processing speed is at the millisecond level. The recognition result data is sorted out (Fig. 13). According to the statistical data, only 2 storage tube yarn holes in this storage tube yarn disc have tube yarn, which is consistent with the actual situation. In order to verify the stability of the test results, the tube yarns in the 1-9 storage tube yarn holes in the 1-9 spindle storage tube yarn discs are taken out in turn, and tube yarns are placed in the remaining storage tube yarn holes, and the 10 and 11 spindle storage tube yarn discs are placed in the full tube and empty tube states respectively (Tab. 1). The detection device performs reciprocating detection with the intubation robot for a long time of 24 h, and the detection results are stored in the external flash memory chip in real-time. After statistical analysis, it is found that the data is periodic, and the test results are in line with the actual situation, meeting the requirements of the intubation robot for the stability and accuracy of the empty pipe detection mechanism (Fig. 13).

      Conclusion At present, the testing agency has conducted a pilot test on the intubation robot of a textile enterprise in Zhejiang. The practical application results show that the empty tube detection system has the advantages of fast image processing speed, high recognition accuracy and stability, easy installation and low cost, and can meet the requirements of the intubation robot for the empty tube detection of the storage yarn disc of the yarn bank type automatic winder.

      Large-scale scheduling of weaving workshop based on NSGAII and neural network
      LEI Junjie, SHEN Chunya, HU Xudong, RU Xin, PENG Laihu
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  208-215.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220301801
      Abstract ( 81 )   HTML ( 6 )   PDF (2735KB) ( 30 )   Save
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      Objective With the increase of personnel, machines and materials, the scheduling scale of weaving workshop increases exponentially. The intelligent scheduling algorithm represented by genetic algorithm is easy to fall into the local optimal solution when solving large-scale scheduling problems, and the process is slow, which is difficult to meet the actual demand. This study aims to combine the advantages of genetic algorithm and neural network to solve the problem of large-scale scheduling in weaving workshop.

      Method According to the characteristics of large-scale scheduling of weaving workshop, a weaving workshop scheduling model was established to minimize overdue loss, the makespan and the number of variety changes. Then, a weaving workshop scheduling algorithm NSGAII-NN125 based on NSGAII and neural network was proposed to solve the large-scale scheduling problem of weaving workshop, which consists of a scheduling module and a multi-objective optimization module. Finally, the optimization module was adopted to find the best the scheduling module according to the merits and demerits of the generation scheme, leading to the scheduling module with high quality, fast speed and reusable.

      Results Comparing the objectives of minimizing overdue loss, the makespan and the number of variety changes, NSGAII-NN125 offered stable performance in a series of weaving workshop scheduling, especially in large-scale scheduling with more than 300 looms and more than 2 000 weaver's beams(Tab. 3). The optimization does not fall into the trend of local optimal solution, and the solution quality is outstanding. Compared with the optimization time, NSGAII-NN125 needed to take longer time to calculate and update the eigenvalues of the neural network. The scheduling speed of NSGAII-NN125 was about 0.67 weaver's beams per second. The NN125 model set was optimized by NSGAII-NN125 according to the scheduling requirements of a weaving workshop which can be used for scheduling similar requirements. Compared with the scheduling objectives, it can be seen that the scheduling quality of the optimized NN125 model set is only slightly weaker than that of NSGAII-NN125, and the time consumption is greatly reduced because the long optimization process is eliminated. The scheduling speed is increased to 50 weaver's beams per second, which has good practical value(Tab. 4).

      Conclusion The NSGAII-NN125 scheduling algorithm was divided into scheduling module and optimization module in structure. The scheduling and optimization were decoupled, so that the search space of genetic algorithm was limited to a fixed number of parameters in the neural network model, which solves the problem that the GA is easy to fall into the local optimal solution or even scheduling failure due to the large solution space in the large-scale scheduling. More importantly, NSGAII-NN125 outputs the optimal NN125 model set after solving a certain problem. The network model set can be reused to avoid repeated optimization of similar problems and improve the actual scheduling speed, which has good practical value.

      Comprehensive Review
      Research progress in nanofiber-based biosensors based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy
      XU Zhihao, XU Danyao, LI Yan, WANG Lu
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  216-224.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220505402
      Abstract ( 117 )   HTML ( 11 )   PDF (4050KB) ( 52 )   Save
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      Significance Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors are usually constructed from active elements and substrate materials, which have the advantages of simple operation and rapid monitoring. Electrospun nanofibers have unique three-dimensional curved channel, large specific surface area, high porosity and controllable stacking density. It not only provides a large number of sites for the loading of nanoparticles, but also facilitates the capture and transport of molecules to be tested, thereby enhancing SERS signals and improving detection sensitivity. Compared with the rigid detection substrate, the flexible substrate represented by electrospinning nanofibers can provide a more flexible detection process in complex environments, so it has great application potential. In order to promote the development and application of nanofiber-based SERS sensors in the biomedical field, it is important to explore the factors that affect the SERS sensing performance of nanofibers.

      Progress The composition and performance evaluation index of nanofiber-based SERS substrate, the construction method of nanofiber substrate, and its performance influencing factors are introduced. By summarizing the construction methods of nanofiber-based SERS substrates, two strategies of in-situ assembly and post-assembly of nanofibers and plasma materials are described. The SERS substrate prepared by in-situ assembly has good stability because most of the nanoparticles exist inside the fibers, but the detection sensitivity is slightly poor. The SERS substrate prepared by post-assembly is more easily combined with the molecule to be tested because the nanoparticles are distributed on the surface of the fiber, and the sensitivity is higher. The mechanism of the influence of the type and morphology of the nanofibers on the flexible SERS sensing performance was further explored. The difference in the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the fibers and their morphology will affect the interaction with the nanoparticles and the molecules to be tested, thereby affecting the detection performance of the substrate. Finally, the application of nanofiber-based SERS substrate in the biomedical field is demonstrated, including for body fluid testing, determining the patient's health status and diagnosing related diseases, and in situ detection of bacteria.

      Conclusion and Prospect Due to the limitations of rigid substrates in use, the research on flexible SERS substrates is increasing. Among them, nanofiber-based flexible SERS substrates with a three-dimensional network structure have great application prospects in real life. At present, much research effort was made on nanofiber-based flexible SERS substrate, but the development and application in the biomedical field are still insufficient. The complex physiological environment of the human body puts forward high requirements for the detection performance of SERS substrate. SERS substrate needs to have good anti-interference performance and stability on the premise of ensuring sensitivity. By revealing the performance influence mechanism of nanofiber-based SERS substrate and according to the performance requirements of SERS sensors in the biomedical field, the future development trend of nanofiber-based SERS substrate is prospected, with a view to providing some reference for how to prepare high-performance nanofiber-based flexible SERS substrate and broaden its practical application. It is hoped that nanofiber-based SERS substrates would be widely applied for human health life monitoring and disease diagnosis in vitro and in vivo.

      Research progress on salt removal from surface of fiber-based interfacial photothermal evaporators
      PAN Luqi, REN Lipei, XIAO Xingfang, XU Weilin, ZHANG Qian
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  225-231.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220703602
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      Significance Solar interfacial photothermal evaporation technology possesses the characteristics of high energy conversion efficiency, clean and zero-pollution, which has broad development prospects in the field of seawater desalination and concentrated salt wastewater treatment. However, the salt precipitation caused by the rapid water escape in the process of interfacial evaporation will inhibit the absorption of light and block the vapor overflow channel, which will inevitably reduce the vapor generation rate and the service life of the evaporation device. Fiber materials are one of the ideal materials for designing solar interfacial evaporator surface desalination because of their flexible mechanical strength, low cost, versatility, cutability and processability.

      Progress This review covers a variety of studies on photothermal evaporation desalination at fiber-based interfaces and focuses on six desalination strategies based on the characteristics of fiber materials, which are grouped into two categories: active and passive. Washing desalination utilizes the water-washing resistance of fiber materials, the surface salt crystals are easily removed by external rubbing. In order to overcome the above-mentioned possible environmental problems, the regional crystalline salt collection strategy not only removes crystalline salt by simple stripping, but also obtains salt as a by-product and reduces the burden on water bodies. However, active desalination strategies still require external forces to remove surface salt crystals, and the sustainability and simplicity of the evaporator are significantly diminished. Therefore, research has exploited the lightness of fiber materials to produce, a easy-to-flip self-cleaning design, when its gravity changes. The current mainstream research focuses on rejecting salt production at the source. The convection effect takes advantage of the loose and porous nature of the fiber material to prepare highly hydrophilic evaporator to achieve a continuous water supply to satisfy salt ion convection. In addition, directional fluid transport with the aid of external forces can move salt ions to low concentrations, while reducing the effect of gravity on salt ion transport. Since the fiber material is easy for surface modification, it is convenient to prepare the Janus structure with the hydrophobic upper layer and hydrophilic lower layer, which can prevent salt ions from reaching the evaporator surface through water, which avoiding salt crystallization. Finally, this paper analyzes the research progress of fiber for surface desalination of interfacial photothermal evaporators, summarizes the problems confronted in the research, and prospects the new development orientation of fiber-based evaporation devices in the future.

      Conclusion and Prospect Fiber-based evaporation devices generally provide promising development applications for solar interface evaporation and desalination designs because of their high evaporation efficiency, sustained treatment of highly concentrated salt solutions, excellent stability and recyclability, and applicability to long-term desalination work. However, the evaporation rate of fiber-based evaporators still needs to be improved when treating saturated brine. In addition, there are still limitations such as easy clogging and difficult removal when treating other contaminants in the bulk water. In conclusion, fiber-based evaporation devices are still immature and full of technical difficulties and multiple challenges. This paper presents some suggestions from the following aspects: 1) to enhance the exploration of multifunctional composite fibers for more application potential in desalination, power generation, sterilization, and impurity removal; and 2) utilizing modern textile technology to design new fibers such as multifunctional hollow fibers, core-sheath structure fibers, shaped fibers, and three-dimensional knitted/woven fabrics to obtain special functions and enhance the vapor generation rate.

      Research progress in artificial nerve conduit prepared by carbon nanotube-doped polymer
      SONG Gongji, WANG Yuyu, WANG Shanlong, WANG Jiannan, XU Jianmei
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  232-239.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220607302
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      Significance Currently, peripheral nerve injury causes great distress to patients, and artificial nerve conduits are used to replace autologous nerve grafting as an ideal treatment option. In the process of peripheral nerve injury and repair, the synergistic effect of conductive nerve conduits and electrical stimulation can greatly accelerate the regeneration and recovery of injured nerves, but polymers suitable for conduit formation are largely nonconductive. Thus, many studies prepare conductive artificial nerve conduits by adding conductive materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNT), polypyrrole (PPy), and polyaniline (PANI), to the natural or synthetic polymers. Among the conductive materials, CNT has attracted much attention because of their better biocompatibility and excellent electrical conductivity. This review focuses on the physiochemical properties of CNT, their mechanisms for nerve repair and regeneration, the chemical modification of CNT and the formation methods of conductive nerve conduits, to better understand the nerve regeneration mechanism of CNT and clarifies the key progress and difficulties in preparing CNT-composited nerve conduits, hoping provide a beneficial reference for the preparation and application of carbon nanotubes in conductive nerve conduits.

      Progress The use of CNT for conductive nerve conduits has been mainly achieved by the doping of CNT with various types of natural or synthetic polymers. Current research mainly focuses on four aspects. The first is the exploration of the role and mechanism of the physiochemical properties of CNT in nerve regeneration. The morphological structure of CNT resembles that of neurites, and the microenvironment constructed by its nanotopography provides structural guidance for the adhesion and extension of neurons. Its anisotropic conductivity is also like that of neurons, and electrical coupling between CNT and neurons facilitates neural signal transmission. The second is the study of various modification methods of CNT to improve its biocompatibility and processability. The modified CNT, with improved water solubility, shows better biocompatibility. Researchers adopted positively and negatively charged particles, polymers, growth factors, etc., to biofunctionalize CNT by covalent and noncovalent methods. Through functionalization, it is easier to interact with nerve cells and avoid agglomeration in vivo, which is beneficial for cellular uptake and internalization and in vivo degradation of nerve conduits. The third is the study of the forming methods of nerve conduits from CNT-doped polymers. The textile processing methods commonly used for conductive artificial nerve conduits include electrospinning techniques, 3D printing techniques, solution casting and braiding. In addition, polymers and CNT can be combined by coating, crosslinking, and so on. The fourth is the investigation on the biological characteristics and applications of conductive nerve conduits. It is believed that nerve repair is better with conductivity of 10-4~10-3 S/m, and this range, higher conductivity results in better nerve regeneration because the conductive film can improve functional recovery and myelination of the regenerated nerve fibers.

      Conclusion and Prospect Through the analysis and review of the relevant research on the preparation of conductive artificial nerve conduits from CNT-composited polymers, the following conclusions can be drawn. 1) CNT has unique advantages in nerve repair and regeneration by virtue of its unique nanomorphology and excellent conductivity. The nanotopography of CNT facilitates its creation of an extracellular matrix-like environment when compositing with polymer materials, thereby promoting neuronal adherent growth and inducing nerve regeneration. Its excellent electrical conductivity significantly improves the efficiency of nerve signal transmission, and paired with external electrical stimulation, it can better repair and regenerate the injured nerve. 2) The functionalization modification of CNT can significantly improve its water solubility, which makes the fabrication and processing of composite conductive artificial neural conduits more convenient, and its biological toxicity is further reduced. 3) CNT and polymers can be combined by blending, coating, or crosslinking in many different ways, and the fabricated conductive artificial nerve conduits have achieved better nerve regeneration effects in animal experiments. At present, the use of CNT for conductive artificial nerve catheters has become a hotspot, but the possible biological metabolic toxicity and long-term toxicity caused by the added amount of CNT as well as the degradation speed of the nerve conduits are less studied. The mechanisms, methods, and influences of synergistic effects between CNT and electrical stimulation in vitro require further study, especially in addition to the nanotopography, electrical conductivity of CNT in catheter preparation, the structure of the catheter, and polymer characteristics, etc., which should be comprehensively considered to achieve the final product with excellent neurorestorative effects in animal experiments or clinical applications.

      Research progress in Kansei engineering for textile and clothing applications
      ZHANG Jun, HU Song, TONG Mengxia, XIAO Wenling
      Journal of Textile Research. 2023, 44(11):  240-249.  doi:10.13475/j.fzxb.20220704702
      Abstract ( 229 )   HTML ( 19 )   PDF (5631KB) ( 136 )   Save
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      Significance The clothing market has undergone a paradigm transform from mass production to customization and personalization, while consumers are increasingly emphasizing the aesthetic expectations and emotional identity associated with clothing products. Aligning product design and development with the psychological needs of consumers to enhance the emotional value of the product has become a pivotal goal for enterprises. However, human subjective feelings are usually uncertain and ambiguous, posing challenges in quantifying consumers' perceptual preferences and evaluations. Kansei engineering is a design methodology utilizing engineering techniques to quantify human emotions and perceptions, enabling the acquisition of perceptual measurements and establishing the relationship between perceptual and physical attributes. In order to clarify the development and application of Kansei engineering and to master its frontier and development trends in textile and clothing, this paper comprehensively reviews the research progress in Kansei engineering for textile and clothing applications.

      Progress Kansei engineering serves as a widely adopted method for quantifying emotions, finding extensive utility in textiles and clothing. Its applications primarily include clothing and fabric design, consumer psychology analysis, clothing product evaluation, and the development of intelligent systems. Initially, the implementation of Kansei engineering relied mainly on the semantic differential method to capture and quantify subjective feelings, and then the correlation between consumers', Kansei information and the objective physical quantities will be established through regression analysis or other methods. However, Kansei information obtained by the semantic differential method is susceptible to various influencing factors, thereby reducing its accuracy. Further, there has been a turn towards combining bioelectrical signals such as electrocardiogram, electroencephalo-gram, and electromyogram, heart rate, eye tracking and other modalities to capture changes in subjective feelings. Additionally, fuzzy mathematical methods have shown promise in addressing the uncertainty and ambiguity of perceptual evaluations. In recent years, remarkable advancements in deep learning techniques have also been witnessed, significantly enhancing the performance of classification and regression tasks. This approach not only facilitates the prediction and interpretation of consumers', aesthetic perceptions but also enables the correlation of user requirements with design factors, thereby assisting designers in achieving innovative designs. Machine learning-based intelligent systems for clothing are personalized, dynamic and have high predictive accuracy, which has become a research hotspot in textile and clothing. Its realization will significantly enhance the emotional attributes of clothing products and the convenience of the clothing market.

      Conclusion and Prospect Kansei engineering can effectively facilitate clothing product evaluation and consumer psychology analysis and optimize the clothing product design. Although its application in textiles and clothing is progressively maturing, certain challenges persist. 1) Limited focus on other perceptual modalities. Most research predominantly relies on the semantic differential method to gather Kansei information from vision and tactile. However, integrating diverse Kansei information from multiple modalities (such as olfaction, physical behavior, and physiological perception) can enrich the understanding of user feelings. 2) Homogeneity and small sample size of selected populations. Diversified participants can be representative of a wider consumer group. 3) Overreliance on subjective evaluation. Current perceptual engineering research relies mainly on subjective evaluations, neglecting the potential benefits of incorporating objective methods and engineering technology tools. The combination of subjective and objective data can be better achieved through methods such as physiological measurement, artificial intelligence, and fuzzy mathematics, to deeply explore users'emotional needs and the inherent value of products.

      In the future, the multimodal Kansei engineering is expected to be a potential effective means for textile and clothing Kansei study. Complex consumer populations can be categorized by Kansei engineering techniques. Then, emotions, perspectives, behavior, and environmental factors of consumers could be combined to construct a Kansei information database for the consumer group. Additionally, it is crucial to develop Kansei design and recommendation systems for textile and clothing products. The implementation of a Kansei-based virtual fitting system can provide consumers with immersive user collaborative design and personalization recommendation services. Finally, incorporating more advanced artificial intelligence techniques in Kansei engineering research will significantly improve the predictive capabilities of Kansei models on the perceptual preferences of consumers and increase the emotional added value of textile and clothing products.