| dc.description.abstract | Cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer on earth originated from renewable plant biomass.
Among all plant sources, cotton fibers contain the highest amount of pure cellulose, which is used
directly in textile fibers for yarn and fabric production. Cellulose fibers (more commonly referred
to as pulp fibers) are extracted through various pulping processes to remove the lignin andC
hemicellulose, which increases the overall alpha-cellulose contents. However, cellulose fibers
have a lower aspect ratio and do not fulfill the technical requirements for textile and yarn
production. However, the aspect ratio can be increased by dissolving the cellulose fibers in an
appropriate solution to regenerate them for getting continuous filaments. Currently, cellulose
regeneration processes require toxic chemical processes that are not environmentally friendly and
required extensive pre-treatment. In this study, we developed a green method to produce textile
filaments from existing kraft pulp (cellulose) fibers. The cellulose fibers were chemically modified
to produce a low-substituted carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and dialdehyde cellulose (DAC). The
CMC and DAC gels were then extruded through a wet-spinning process to obtain cross-linked
textile filaments. These filaments have a low content of carboxylic groups (∼1.4 mmol/g cellulose)
and aldehyde groups (∼1.5 mmol/g cellulose) and underwent a significant reduction of water
absorption with high mechanical strength. In this work, the degree of hydrophilicity of the
produced filaments was optimized by controlling the functional groups (carboxyl and aldehyde).
We also focus on other conditions that affect the hydrophilicity of the filaments to achieve similar
absorption properties of cotton fabric (i.e., water uptake - 1.5 g/g yarn). | en_US |
