Analysis on improving yarn quality and application of functional yarn (Part 2)

2. Analysis of the current status of functional yarn and textile development

With the continuous improvement of people's demand for the quality of clothing and household textiles, and the long-term spread of the new coronavirus, people's requirements for textile health care, antibacterial, sterilization, antiviral, disease prevention and other functions are also increasing.

2.1 Antibacterial towel yarn

Towels and their products, such as bath towels, are necessities of people's daily life, requiring soft touch, less hairiness and comfortable use. Pure cotton yarn has been used for a long time, but with the change of people's consumption concepts, the requirements for towel cleanliness, hygiene and health are also increasing. At present, high-end towels use a kind of bamboo pulp fiber yarn, which has the characteristics of antibacterial, moisture absorption and softness. The other is a blended yarn of copper-modified polyester fiber and modal fiber, which has long-lasting antibacterial, deodorizing and self-cleaning properties.

The School of Textiles and Clothing of Jiangnan University uses bamboo pulp fiber yarn as weft yarn and 28tex pure cotton yarn as warp yarn to produce towels with deodorizing and antibacterial functions. Towels and bath towels made of copper-modified polyester fiber and modal fiber have good antibacterial and health-care properties, are breathable and comfortable to the touch.

2.2 Functional blended yarns such as seaweed fiber

Seaweed fiber is a new type of regenerated fiber with the characteristics of moisture absorption and breathability, antibacterial and deodorizing, dust resistance and antistatic. The School of Textiles of Qingdao University uses 20% seaweed fiber, 65% combed cotton and 15% polyester to produce 20tex yarn to make high-end skin-friendly fabrics with antibacterial and deodorizing functions.

Seaweed extract is used to prepare seaweed fiber for the production of towels, underwear, etc. It is used to produce shirts, home textiles, mattresses and other products, and has a certain beauty effect. At present, Qingdao University is further studying to improve the spinnability of fibers to further expand the scope of application.

2.3 Plant antibacterial yarn

With the arrival of an aging society, the demand for disease prevention and treatment and health maintenance is increasing. The consumption of protective, medical, sanitary disinfection and personal care products is rising steadily. Healthy functional textiles have become a trend in the development of textile consumption upgrades, among which textile products with antibacterial functions have become one of the development hotspots.

At present, there are two main processing methods for antibacterial textiles. One is to use spinning and antibacterial technology to place antibacterial materials directly in the fiber and then process it into antibacterial fabrics; the other is to give textiles antibacterial functions through fabric finishing processes.

A vocational college in Shandong has developed 14.8tex siro compact spinning yarn with antibacterial function using three viscose-based plant antibacterial fibers, namely, wormwood fiber, mint fiber and isatis fiber. The fiber specifications are 1.67dtexx38mm, and the content of the three antibacterial fibers is more than 30%. Since the three raw materials are all viscose-based fibers with the same specifications, the same spinning process and process parameters are used for production.

In order to ensure uniform fiber mixing, three-pass merging is adopted, and the yarn is uniform and has less hairiness. The antibacterial rates of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans are between 95-97%, and the antibacterial rates of common bacteria far exceed the national standards. The antibacterial textile products made are used for antibacterial and health-preserving functional clothing, which are well received by consumers.

2.4 Graphene-modified functional textiles

Graphene is the thinnest and lowest resistivity nanomaterial known in the world. It has good antistatic, UV protection, antibacterial and antibacterial, electromagnetic shielding, heat resistance and wear resistance. It has a wide range of application prospects in the field of functional fibers and fabrics and smart textiles, and has become a major trend in the development of textiles in the future.

The School of Textile Engineering of Zhejiang University of Technology has developed a variety of modified fibers and functional textiles such as modified cotton fibers, modified silk, and modified polyester by using graphene to modify fibers. For example, the graphene-modified polyester staple fiber made by melt spinning technology has greatly improved mechanical performance indicators such as strength, elasticity, and wear resistance, and has some new functional characteristics. The antibacterial rate of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans is greater than 99%, showing good health and antibacterial properties.

The modified polyester fiber has a hollow structure. The short fiber quilt made of the opened fiber has a thermal insulation of 97.3%, which is higher than the thermal insulation effect of the duck down quilt. The graphene fiber is blended with a variety of flame-retardant fibers to make the fabric have excellent flame retardant effect. With the continuous deepening of domestic research on graphene materials, the application field of functional textiles made of graphene materials will be further expanded.

2.5 Multifunctional fabrics such as Mxene/silk

With the continuous improvement of people's living standards, consumers pay more attention to functional design in addition to the basic requirements of wearing comfort for clothing fabrics, especially smart wearable textiles have attracted much attention. The multifunctional Mxene/silk fabric developed by Jiangxi Institute of Fashion is produced by combining two functional fibers. Mxene fiber has the advantages of high conductivity, excellent hydrophilicity, good antibacterial and biocompatibility, and can directly form a stable dispersion in water. Natural silk fabric has excellent skin-friendliness, softness and breathability. Researchers immersed silk fabric in Mxene dispersion to obtain functionalized Mxene/silk fabric.

2.6 Heat-generating and heat-insulating functional yarn

The warm-keeping mechanism of traditional cold-resistant fabrics is to prevent the body's own heat from radiating. When getting up in the morning and getting dressed, the skin feels cold when it touches the clothes. Only when the temperature of the clothes is close to the body temperature, will you not feel cold.

The Jiangsu Institute of Engineering and Technology has developed a heat-generating antibacterial yarn fabric that has changed the traditional mechanism of keeping warm. It integrates special nano heat-generating materials into the spinning process of chemical fibers. The yarn and fabric produced can absorb human sweat and moisture, convert them into heat energy and dissipate them. At the same time, it can prevent heat loss, and can generate heat and keep warm for a long time. It has excellent light, soft, warm and antibacterial functions. The fabric no longer feels cold when it comes into contact with the human body, which is convenient for limb movement.

The warp yarn of the fabric is made of cotton/bamboo blended yarn, and the weft yarn is made of polyester-based and viscose-based heat-generating fiber blended yarn. The heat-generating polyester is 55%, and the heat-generating viscose fiber is 45%. The warmth-generating effect of the fabric is closely related to the amount of heat-generating fiber used, but with the increase of heat-generating fiber, the comfort and breathability of the fabric gradually decreases, so heat-generating fiber cannot be used entirely.

Cotton fiber is skin-friendly and comfortable to wear; polyester is strong and wrinkle-resistant, making the fabric crisp; viscose fiber has small holes on its surface, which can quickly absorb and release moisture. The four fibers are blended into yarn and woven into fabrics, which have both the comfort of cotton and the shape retention and crispness of polyester. In addition, the antibacterial and health-care properties of bamboo fiber achieve the complementary performance of multi-component fibers, making the fabric comfortable, warm and antibacterial, and able to meet the wearing needs of people in modern society.

2.7 Multifunctional hemp yarn

Hemp fiber is the second largest fiber raw material in China after cotton, including hemp, hemp, flax, ramie and apocynum. The common characteristics of hemp fibers are breathability, moisture absorption and quick drying. The made clothing is refreshing and comfortable to wear. It also has the characteristics of antibacterial, mite removal and mildew resistance. It can prevent diseases and protect health, and is very popular among consumers. There are more and more types of textiles produced with hemp fibers, and their use is becoming more and more extensive.

Hunan is a ramie textile production area. From ramie planting, degumming, spinning to making ramie textile products, a one-stop industrial chain production system has been formed. Many regions in Zhejiang Province use a variety of hemp fibers to develop textiles. Linen noil is blended with cotton, viscose, polyester and other fibers to make linen noil blended yarn, which is directly exported to Europe and the United States, achieving good economic benefits.

Hemp fiber (also known as hemp fiber) is also a new type of hemp fiber with relatively fine counts that has been planted and developed in China in recent years. Because the fiber is softer and does not feel itchy, functional textiles made from hemp blended yarn in Zhejiang have formed a complete industrial chain, and hemp clothing has been sold well at home and abroad.

Hemp fiber is used to produce a variety of colored spun yarns, which are processed into clothing, decorative items and home textile products (sheets, towels, quilt covers, etc.). The finished products do not need to be dyed, which reduces pollution to the environment. They are very popular in the market. The products have high added value and have achieved good economic benefits.

Apocynum, also known as wild hemp, is also a functional fiber raw material, widely distributed in northern China. The fiber has high strength and high cellulose content, and is softer than other hemp fibers. Fabrics made of apocynum blended yarn have excellent hygroscopicity, good antibacterial properties, and can also shield ultraviolet rays and far infrared rays.

Apocynum and cotton fiber produce 22.4tex compact siro-spun blended yarn in a ratio of 30/70, which has the advantages of high strength, less hairiness, uniform yarn, good moisture conductivity and wear resistance.

2.8 Coffee functional knitted fabric

Coffee fiber is a new type of environmentally friendly functional fiber. Coffee grounds are made into nano-powder after high-temperature carbonization, added to polyester masterbatch, and made by melt-spinning. It is a functional polyester with excellent antibacterial, moisture-conducting, perspiration-wicking and other functions. The fiber has high elongation at break, acid resistance but not alkali resistance, and the moisture regain is better than ordinary polyester. Because coffee powder is added in spinning, polyester has multiple functional characteristics.

Jiangsu Shazhou Vocational and Industrial College uses coffee fiber to spin knitted sports fabrics, which have good antibacterial, moisture-conducting and breathable properties, meet the requirements of sports fabrics for wearing performance, and are used in underwear, T-shirts, shirts and home textiles. They are very popular in the market and have broad application prospects.

III. Conclusion

With the continuous upgrading of people's pursuit of clothing and daily life textiles, the quality and functional requirements of textiles are becoming more and more stringent. Nowadays, people not only require textiles to be beautiful, comfortable and close-fitting, but also hope to have multiple health functions such as antibacterial and disease prevention. Therefore, the raw material selection, production process and product performance of textiles need to be in line with people's needs.

In recent years, in order to improve the quality of spinning, textile enterprises have introduced advanced spinning technologies such as Siro spinning, Siro compact spinning, and jet vortex spinning, and widely adopted various functional yarns to create a series of high-quality yarns. The continuous improvement of yarn quality and the continuous expansion of textile functions have laid a solid foundation for the further development of enterprises.