Biomimetic Fibers Lead The Future Fashion

Most of the synthetic fiber materials in the world, including man-made fibers, are developed by scientific exploration. Of course, there are technologies obtained by accidental discovery. However, the use of Natural materials Little is known about biological processes. Biological mimicry The fibers are quietly approaching our lives.

Plants produce carbohydrates by photosynthesis and form synthesis. Plant fiber It also absorbs 0.3% of the carbon dioxide in the air. Plants use small amounts of carbon dioxide to produce cellulose under water and photosynthesis. The fiber cross section is composed of many complex structures, and the cellulose has similarity. Fiber scientists define it as "carbon dioxide fiber". That is to say, once we know more about natural knowledge, we can avoid using fossil energy to make artificial fibers, and creating an environment-friendly biological fiber has become a possibility.

Many centuries ago, domesticated silk appeared. After years of cultivation, the value of this chemical fiber mimic silk is still indelible. Subsequently, wood pulp is found to be soluble and wet spinning. Rayon and wood fiber have the same structure as cellulose. Then nylon appeared again. Nylon is a masterpiece of human imitation of natural fibers. It has similar properties of amino acids. 50 years later, blending technology emerged, synthetic fiber gradually became our fashion, and also formed a way of development. As a result, polyester fibers make the other man-made fibers look impressive and make a sharp contrast to rayon. However, not all silk features can replace natural re tree structures. For example, gloss characteristics, hygroscopic characteristics and dyeable characteristics are not fully imitated. For example, all organic elements of chrysanthemum, such as carbohydrates, protein, fat, cellulose and so on, all contain carbon. Photosynthesis causes carbon to form new plant carbon. It is said that about 2000 billion tons of carbon are absorbed from the air by photosynthesis in the world every year. Among them, plants contain carbon dioxide in the air and water molecules in plants and convert them into plant carbohydrates.

Photosynthesis makes plants need more energy. Plant sugar is higher than other simple compounds. Its energy mainly comes from the absorption of light, that is, chlorophyll and carotenoid production. Plants can not only produce carbohydrates, but also convert their compounds into structural materials, such as cellulose and protein. This transformation requires more energy, which leads to the decomposition of carbohydrates with high energy. Under oxidation, it regenerates carbon dioxide and water. This energy release and transformation process is regarded as a process of plant respiration and growth, similar to that of animal respiration. Photosynthesis enables plants to get energy and store them in carbohydrates. DrJ.Magoshi, a Japanese agricultural and Biological Research Institute (NIAS), believes that the formation of silk has undergone this mechanical process, which occurs in all animals and plants. That is to say, all plants and animals can become "factories" of pseudo biological fibers.

As we all know, silkworm is not real silk spinning. Instead, it pulls silk out of the mouth and moves the cocoon by weaving. Silkworm eggs can be fixed on the plane. If we can give the silkworm "orders", they may be able to directly "spin" clothes according to human instructions, and save the process of weaving. This is quite different from our traditional man-made fiber textile. In fact, natural silk fiber is more flexible than man-made fiber, and its thermal insulation, handle and hygroscopicity are better than synthetic fibers. Moreover, silk fiber has good function and can even design more artificial functions.

In the past, people did not know how silkworms made silk from eating mulberry leaves. It is now discovered that mulberry leaves are digested to form amino acids and then form silk glands. In this way, the stratified silk protein is formed in the belly of silkworm eggs, and then the glial protein filament is formed by calcium ions in the silk gland, and the gel is transformed into a liquid crystal by absorbing carbon dioxide in the air, and finally becomes a liquid crystal. This process is very similar to the production of synthetic fibers. In fact, when referring to animal fibers, humans do not really understand their hair and wool growth process. The growth of human hair and wool is a process of polymerization of amino acids. If the hair is formed in the process of forming a new synthetic fiber, the polymer will form a melt and store it and then emerge from the skin. This process can make us understand that in fact, this is also a process of artificial silk. If we can really imitate this biological activity, we can create countless kinds of mimetic fibers. At present, many fiber Companies in the world are extending their horns to the principles of human hair development. Modern biotechnology allows hair to grow in vivo according to the shape expected by humans. If human hair can be replicated, wool can also be synthesized by future biological mimicry technology.

Spider silk is another interesting fiber material. This animal fiber has strong toughness and can be stretched arbitrarily. In order to catch insects more effectively, spiders often adjust the nutrients in the silk automatically, so that the strength of the silk can be adjusted to the axis of spider web. When the spider silk is stretched, its toughness increases from the center to the edge. The toughness of spider silk is equivalent to that of Kevlar. Its elongation or fracture resistance is higher than that of Kevlar 35%. Therefore, its latitude and longitude is enough to catch insects larger than spiders themselves. However, when spiders move, the viscosity of spider web does not stick to it. This is the wonder of nature. The world's top fiber scientists are interested in the structure of spider silk. They hope to explain the physical properties of spider silk structure, so as to develop artificial intelligence materials like spider silk. This may be the key to the development of new fiber materials in the future. Such biological mimicry will undoubtedly become a hotbed for the future development of new chemical fibers. Future biological mimicry technology can utilize various homogeneous and heterogeneous materials in animal and plant to develop various biological fibers to meet more human needs. For example, the strength of liquid crystal protein fibers can be enhanced by mimicking the function of organisms. The use of such fiber materials can make human beings in the hot desert areas free from strong light and high temperatures.

Of course, in addition to animal fiber, humans can also use plant fiber mimicry to develop fiber types. For example, bamboo fiber is a natural reinforced composite material. Its cross section shows that it has abundant cellulose materials, and the outer part is hard and high density. Its heterogeneities structure can help humans resist high cold and strong winds. Professor Kikutani (T.Kikutani) of Tokyo Polytechnic University, Japan, has successfully synthesized an artificial bamboo mimicry with the same density. This material has high strength, high toughness and high coefficient, so it has become the most urgent product of market demand.

In order to explore the ideal function of polymer materials, human beings also need to work on polymer molecular weight and molecular structure defects. The new spinning technology suited to it is another challenge for innovators. Because the future biological mimicry is no longer the traditional textile, but the use of molecular guidance control to achieve preset precision of textile fiber.

In nature, the molecular weight of monomers is more than 2 million, but the molecular weight of polyamides is up to 200 thousand. Therefore, the production of high spin oriented fiber products by natural polymer synthesis will gradually replace the existing fiber production mode.

In this way, it is no longer a myth that man should imitate the silkworm's manufacture of fiber. He can achieve this goal accurately by means of high technology. Nonhomogeneous material seems to be the key to developing intelligent fibers. At present, some developed countries in the world have begun to use high-tech means to develop bio spinning "factories". They will produce bio fiber products on a commercial scale to replace petroleum chemical fibers.