No PFAS, no problem for new textile innovations – Sourcing Journal

Material World is a weekly roundup of innovations and ideas in the materials sector, covering the latest from new biomaterials and alternative leathers to sustainable substitutes and future-proof fibres.

Impermea Materials

David Zamarin, CEO of Impermea Materials, founded the company nine and a half years ago when he was a sophomore.

Zamarin was inspired to start the advanced materials company because he wanted to keep his expensive Jordan sneakers clean. What was on the market back then – unbeknownst to Zamarin – were cleaning products full of PFAS In order to be able to apply the solution, protective equipment with a breathing mask had to be worn.

Zamarin was part-time enrolled in chemistry class at the University of Pennsylvania when he asked “really naive questions” about natural alternatives to these toxic solutions. The research led him to “discover what’s called the ‘lotus leaf effect,’ which all these chemicals are trying to mimic,” he said, describing the eight-month development of a “minimal viable product” that he launched in early 2014.

Although Impermea is very different from its origin story, it is still focused on finding natural alternatives C6 chemicals.

By 2016, proposed a class action lawsuit against Dupont PFAS into the mainstream”, Nobody really knew what PFAS issaid Zamarin, describing the challenge of finding a sustainable option that doesn’t compromise performance, even though it “really did” for the first few days.

“And we realized that the industry just didn’t want that‘ he said, adding: ‘No one was willing to sacrifice performance in exchange for more sustainabilityalthough there was pending litigation or regulation come out.”

Impermea Materials has been working to identify the unique molecules that allow “common substrates to be functionalized to perform exceptionally”. coatings which are liquid repellent and resistant to stains, fading and mildew. These molecules are also 100 percent PFAS-free Fluorine free, non-toxic, water-based and just as recyclable, compostable and repulpable as the substrate they are applied to. When applied to textiles, the water-based coating technology creates a superoleophobic And superhydrophobic repellent coating for various fabrics, ideal for weather gear and menstrual underwear.

Hydro-Tex 1000 is based on siloalkoxyurysilane, a water-based technology to develop a breathable, durable, super hydrophobic, repellent textile coating. It is a safe, non-toxic and fluorine-free treatment optimized for use on cotton, linen, viscose, polyester, denim, nylon and elastane, among others. Hydro-Tex + UV 1010 is a water based technology Engineered to provide a breathable, durable and super hydrophobic repellent coating for textiles blocks harmful UV rays. Hydro-Tex + Virushield 1030 is Impermea’s patent-pending protective coating technology that transforms a conventional textile into a breathable, super-hydrophobic barrier that repels larger droplets and traps smaller droplets that can prevent transmission through containment active viruses.

Apple and Meta have already knocked, Zamarin said of interest in Impermea’s technologies. “[I]It was difficult to break into the textile market. it is one of them most fragmented business models I’ve never seen that before,” he said.

Cornell University

The fashion industry is trying Reduce the amount of waste this creates. But what about that existing waste?

“We have to face the reality: this waste is already being created and is not going anywhere,” said Juan Hinestroza, professor of fiber science and garment design and director of the Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory in Cornell University‘s College of Human Ecology said. “We need to find ways to address this.”

Cornell University researchers have found a way to chemically decompose clothing and reuse polyester compounds in manufacturing fire resistant, antibacterial or wrinkle free textile coatings. The proof-of-principle study (which uses a method known as controlled crystallization) was funded in part by National Science Foundation and should inspire the fashion industry, which accounts for 20 percent of global sales solid waste– Much of it illegally ends up in other countries, which Hinestroza has seen firsthand.

“I’ve been to a few countries and seen a lot textile waste That should be recycled or donated, and that worried me,” he said. “I wanted to see if we could repurpose these materials into something that has greater value.”

That’s where polymerization come in.

A journal study describes the process of cutting up textiles and chemically breaking them down into a “soup” of raw materials, dyes, additives, dirt and esters. A metal solution is added to this soup, and the building blocks of the polyester have an affinity for the metal, selectively linking metal compounds into tiny cages, also called metal-organic frameworks, that settle to the bottom of this so-called soup.

“These metal-organic frameworks are like detectives; You can find a specific molecule you’re looking for no matter what’s around it,” Hinestroza said. “Initially, people didn’t believe it worked. But we tested it and the trick was to encapsulate a metal in a cloud or droplet [an] acidic environment. And then hopefully minimize the amount of pollution generated.”

These cages are then used to manufacture coatings, the coatings may need structural adjustments to suit individual uses (wrinkle resistance, antibacterial).

“My number one goal is to create a universal finish,” he said. “In science we are allowed to have these dreams.”

“Upcycling Dyed Polyester Fabrics into Copper 1,4-Benzeedicarboxylate Organometallic Frameworks” was published in the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research at the end of March. Phillip Milner, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell, and Tyler Azbell, a graduate student in Milner’s lab, were co-authors of the study.