Regeneration of cellulose fibers from cotton roll towels by means of the Ioncell® process
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URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2021-05-18
Department
Major/Subject
Fibre and Polymer Engineering
Mcode
CHEM3024
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Chemical, Biochemical and Materials Engineering
Language
en
Pages
62+5
Series
Abstract
In this thesis a route for the recycling of pre-consumer, post-consumer and dyed waste cotton via the novel Ioncell® (Sixta et al., 2015) process is presented. Indicated by a broad molar mass distribution the cotton waste samples were heterogenous by nature and showed a high degree of polymerization. Acidic treatment was performed in order to adjust the degree of polymerization suitable for the Ioncell® spinning process. The starting materials were dissolved in 1,5-diazabicyclo (4.3.0) non-5-ene acetate [DBNH][OAc], converted to new colored and white cellulosic fibers by the dry-jet wet extrusion technology, washed and reconditioned. The mechanical and optical properties of the regenerated fibers were analyzed in detail via approved methods (SEM, birefringence, mechanical testing, XRD, FTIR, TG/DSC). All of the regenerated fibers exhibit a significantly higher tenacities of around 60 cN/dtex with an elongation of 10% compared to native cotton fibers and commercially available fibers (e.g. viscose and lyocell fibers). Besides, after spinning a loss in color and a slight reduction of the crystallinity were recognized in case of the fibers produced from dyed cotton. Whereas, no significant change in the chemical structure was noticed.Description
Supervisor
Sixta, HerbertThesis advisor
Schlapp-Hackl, IngeRissanen, Marja
Keywords
chemical recycling, cotton, ionic liquid, Ioncell®, circular economy, fibers