Hohenstein investigates ‘lotus effect’
The BMWi, Germany’s economics and technology ministry, recently commissioned the Hohenstein Institute and the German Institute for Textile and Fibre Research
ITCF Denkendorf to carry out a research project surrounding what is known as the ‘lotus effect’ in relation to textiles.
According to the collaborators, a similar soil-repellent effect was realised for the first time using a new fibre structuring technique. They claim that, until now, conventional finishing was the only way of applying hydrophobic micro- and nano-structures to textile surfaces. While the functional layer using this method usually offered good soil-repellent effects, it did not tend to be very durable when the fabric was in constant use.
With the new technique, an additional, nano-structured surface is generated with the help of superparamagnetic nano-particles during the melt spinning process of manmade fibres. This fibre structuring takes place directly after the spinneret, when the spin-melt is still in a thermoplastic state, which allows the filament to stretch.
Yarns and knitted sample swatches have been manufactured in laboratories from the mono-filaments; however, further research is needed before they can be produced on an industrial scale.
