the School of Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully designed a fast, cheap and green method to convert cotton fabric waste into highly compressible and ultra-light cotton.aerogel.
aerogel is one of the very light materials in the world, with high porosity, strong absorption capacity and low thermal conductivity. These properties make aerogels ideal for use in areas such as oil spill cleaning, personal care products such as diapers, and thermal and acoustic insulation. Although aerogels were first invented in 1931, the material was not widely adopted by industry due to its high production costs. Therefore, aerogel scientists around the world are actively looking for ways to improve the manufacture and consumption of different types of aerogels. The NUS team contributed to this global effort, successfully pioneering the development of aerogels using cotton fibers harvested from textile waste.
from unwanted clothes to materials
HaiMinhDuong Associate Professor and Professor NhanPhan-Thien in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore's School of Engineering, the team found that this new cotton aerogel can be easily compressed and can recover very quickly up to 97 percent of its original size when placed in water.
"This new eco-friendly cotton aerogel is a significant improvement over the aerogels previously developed by our team using waste paper. It is highly compressible, so storage and transportation costs can be greatly reduced. In addition, these cotton aerogels can be manufactured in 8 hours-which is 9 times faster than our earlier invention and about 20 times faster than current commercial manufacturing processes. They are also stronger, making them more suitable for mass production. While we have demonstrated new applications for cotton aerogel to control bleeding and insulate heat, we will continue to explore new capabilities for this material, "said Associate Professor Duong.
