Department of Fashion Technology, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India.
Department of Fashion Technology, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bengaluru, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr;30(17):49136-49149. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-25611-7. Epub 2023 Feb 11.
The use of proper mitigation strategies to control the impact of microfiber pollution is need of the hour requirement. Though several laundry aids were developed to reduce the environmental impact caused by synthetic microfiber, due to the lack of awareness among the public, their effectiveness was limited. Hence, the mitigation measures at the production stage of textile materials can be a proactive solution with greater effectiveness in mitigating the issue at different stages rather than focussing only on domestic laundering. In this aspect, few recent attempts have been made to control the microfiber release from textiles by the surface finishing process. Thus, the current research focused on utilizing the surface modification process and surface finishing process to reduce the microfiber release behavior of knitted polyester fabrics. In this study, polyester knitted fabric (PES) was surface finished with chitosan (PES-Ch), sericin (PES-Se), and polyvinyl alcohol (PES-PVA), and their effectiveness in reducing microfiber shedding during laundry was analyzed. These finishes are applied directly on the polyester fabric and also after surface modification by alkali (Al) and enzyme (En) pre-treatments. The results reported that at the first wash, directly finished samples showed a reduction of 30-40% in microfiber shedding, and the samples finished after alkali pre-treatment showed a significant reduction of 47-84.29% (p < 0.05). Reduction in microfiber release was noted in the order of chitosan finish with alkali pre-treatment (PES-Al-Ch) > chitosan finish (PES-Ch) > sericin finish with alkali pre-treatment (PES-Al-Se) > polyvinyl alcohol finish with alkali pre-treatment (PES-Al-PVA) > polyvinyl alcohol finish (PES-PVA) for both fiber count and mass. In the case of enzyme pre-treatment, no reduction was reported, irrespective of the finishes applied. Repeated wash test results showed that the finishes could withstand and effectively control the microfiber release from the polyester fabric even after 20 washes. The performance of PES-Al-Ch fabric was superior among other modifications up to the fifth wash (with an 83.55% reduction in microfiber release). At extended washes like the 15th and 20th wash, the performance of PES-Al-PVA fabric was found to be better, with 94% and 95% microfiber reduction, respectively.
需要采取适当的缓解策略来控制微纤维污染的影响。尽管已经开发了几种洗衣助剂来减少合成微纤维对环境的影响，但由于公众缺乏意识，它们的效果有限。因此，在纺织材料的生产阶段采取缓解措施可以是一种更有效的主动解决方案，可以在不同阶段减轻问题，而不仅仅是关注家庭洗涤。在这方面，最近已经有一些尝试通过表面整理工艺来控制纺织品的微纤维释放。因此，目前的研究集中在利用表面改性工艺和表面整理工艺来减少针织聚酯织物的微纤维释放行为。在这项研究中，对聚酯针织织物（PES）进行壳聚糖（PES-Ch）、丝胶（PES-Se）和聚乙烯醇（PES-PVA）的表面整理，并分析它们在洗涤过程中减少微纤维脱落的效果。这些整理剂直接应用于聚酯织物，也可以在经过碱（Al）和酶（En）预处理的表面改性后应用。结果表明，在第一次洗涤时，直接整理的样品的微纤维脱落减少了 30-40%，经过碱预处理的样品的微纤维脱落减少了 47-84.29%（p<0.05）。微纤维释放的减少顺序为经碱预处理的壳聚糖整理（PES-Al-Ch）>壳聚糖整理（PES-Ch）>经碱预处理的丝胶整理（PES-Al-Se）>经碱预处理的聚乙烯醇整理（PES-Al-PVA）>聚乙烯醇整理（PES-PVA），无论是纤维计数还是质量。在酶预处理的情况下，无论应用哪种整理剂，都没有观察到减少。重复洗涤测试结果表明，即使经过 20 次洗涤，整理剂仍能承受并有效控制聚酯织物的微纤维释放。在其他改性中，PES-Al-Ch 织物的性能优于其他改性，在第五次洗涤时（微纤维释放减少 83.55%）。在 15 次和 20 次洗涤等延长洗涤次数的情况下，发现 PES-Al-PVA 织物的性能更好，微纤维减少分别为 94%和 95%。
