(Eng. Muhammad Imran, Pakistan)
Imagine a textile that not only just cover the human skin but carrier its natural own healthy properties. What if the constituents of the textile did not involve any farming or animal use but come from a resource which is abundant and currently a challenge for the globe in the form of waste?
Pollutants that enter the fresh water from the surroundings (i.e. industrial drainage, landscape, precipitation, untreated sewages and so on) can directly and adversely affect aquatic as well as wild life and increase the level of nutrients in the water. This results in spark dense growth of aquatic biomes in waterways and stand a challenge around the globe to dispose of these unpleasant biomes from water bodies.
Where this become a challenge around the globe to manage disposal of these aquatic biomes will be an opportunity for textile industry to extract sustainable textile constituents for multiple usage as;
- These aquatic biomes contains 15 – 23% of cellulose, which can be extract as a raw material for generation of regenerated textile fibers. One of this recent innovative invention is manufacturing of Sea cell fiber from aquatic seaweed biomes. Manufacturing of Sea cell fiber is just a beginning while magic is waiting the researchers.
- Presence of moisturizing agent constituent can be extract for manufacturing of bio moisturizing finishes of textile.
- Anti-bacterial constituents can open new opportunities of manufacturing bio textile finishes having property of anti-microbial.
- Presence of different color constituents as green, red and brown can be extracted as natural colorants for textile processing industry.
- It can be used as a bio fuel as well.
Where the world is facing challenges of scarce resources and sustainability challenges in textile market; all these utilizations of aquatic biomes will results in upcycling of these unpleasant waste and open new horizons of sustainable world for textile researchers.
References:
- Zhang, M., Liu, K., Xu, J., Wang, P., Sun, J., Ding, W., … & Zhang, K. (2022). Porous Oxide-Functionalized Seaweed Fabric as a Flexible Breath Sensor for Noninvasive Nephropathy Diagnosis. ACS sensors, 7(9), 2634-2644.
- Pandimurugan, R., & Thambidurai, S. (2017). UV protection and antibacterial properties of seaweed capped ZnO nanoparticles coated cotton fabrics. International journal of biological macromolecules, 105, 788-795.
- Zikeli, S. (2006). Production process of a new cellulosic fiber with antimicrobial properties. Biofunctional Textiles and the Skin, 33, 110-126.
- Avcı, H., Özdemir, M., İridağ, B. Y., Duru, C. S., & Candan, C. (2018). Comfort properties of socks from seacell fibers. The Journal of The Textile Institute, 109(3), 419-425.
