Introducing the fashion of the future: a听T-shirt you can wear a few times, then, when you get bored with it, dissolve and recycle to make a new shirt.
Researchers at the ATLAS Institute at the CU Boulder are now one step closer to that goal. In a new study, the team of engineers and designers that spins textile fibers made of materials like sustainably sourced gelatin. The group鈥檚 鈥渂iofibers鈥� feel a bit like flax fiber and dissolve in hot water in minutes to an hour.
The team, led by Eldy L谩zaro V谩squez, a doctoral student in the ATLAS Institute, presented its findings in May at the in Honolulu.
鈥淲hen you don鈥檛 want these textiles anymore, you can dissolve them and recycle the gelatin to make more fibers,鈥� said Michael Rivera, a co-author of the new research and assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and Department of Computer Science.
The study tackles a growing problem around the world: In 2018 alone, people in the United States听 of textiles to landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency鈥攏early 8% of all听municipal solid waste produced that year.听
The researchers envision a different path for fashion.
Their machine is small enough to fit on a desk and . L谩zaro V谩squez hopes the device will help designers around the world experiment with making their own biofibers.
鈥淵ou could customize fibers with the strength and elasticity you want, the color you want,鈥� she said. 鈥淲ith this kind of prototyping machine, anyone can make fibers. You don鈥檛 need the big machines that are only in university chemistry departments.鈥�
Spinning threads
This DIY machine for spinning gelatin fibers cost just $560 to build. (Credit: Utility Research Lab)
From left to right, researchers Eldy L谩zaro V谩squez (holding gelatin yarn), Mirela Alistar and Michael Rivera. (Credit: Utility Research Lab)
The study arrives as fashionistas, roboticists and more are embracing a trend known as 鈥渟mart textiles.鈥� Levi鈥檚 Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google, for example, looks like a denim coat but includes sensors that can connect to your smartphone.听
But such clothing of the future comes with a downside, Rivera said:
鈥淭hat jacket isn't really recyclable. It's difficult to separate the denim from the copper yarns and the electronics.鈥�
To imagine a new way of making clothes, the team started with gelatin. This springy protein is common in the bones听of many animals, including pigs and cows. Every year, meat producers throw away large volumes of gelatin that doesn鈥檛 meet requirements for cosmetics or food products like Jell-O. (L谩zaro V谩squez bought her own gelatin, which comes as a powder, from a local butcher shop.)
She and her colleagues decided to turn that waste into wearable treasure.
The group鈥檚 machine uses a plastic syringe to heat up and squeeze out droplets of a liquid gelatin mixture. Two sets of rollers in the machine then tug on the gelatin, stretching it out into long, skinny fibers鈥攏ot unlike a spider spinning a web from silk. In the process, the fibers also pass through liquid baths where the researchers can introduce bio-based dyes or other additives to the material. Adding a little bit of genipin, an extract from fruit, for example, makes the fibers stronger.
Other co-authors of the research included Mirela Alistar and Laura Devendorf, both assistant professors in ATLAS.
Dissolving duds
L谩zaro V谩squez said designers may be able to do anything they can imagine with these sorts of textiles.
As a proof of concept, the researchers made small textile sensors out of gelatin fibers and cotton and conductive yarns, similar to the makeup of a Jacquard jacket. The team then submerged these patches in warm water. The gelatin dissolved, releasing the yarns for easy recycling and reuse.
Designers could tweak the chemistry of the fibers to make them a little more resilient, L谩zaro V谩squez said鈥攜ou wouldn鈥檛 want your jacket to disappear in the rain. They could also play around with spinning similar fibers from other natural ingredients. Those materials include chitin, a component of crab shells, or agar-agar, which comes from algae.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to think about the whole lifecycle of our textiles,鈥� L谩zaro V谩squez said. 鈥淭hat begins with where the material is coming from. Can we get it from something that normally goes to waste?鈥�
Title image: Biofibers made from gelatin in a rainbow of colors. (Credit: Utility Research Lab)
