We report inkjet printing of an organic nanoparticle-based surface pre-treatment onto textiles to enable all inkjet-printed graphene e-textiles.

The aim of this research was to investigate the recycling of cotton waste garments by fibre regeneration. Easy care finished cotton fabrics and indigo dyed waste denim garments were successfully purified, dissolved in a suitable solvent and spun into fibres. The physical properties of the resultant fibres were compared with standard lyocell fibres spun from wood pulp and the fibres regenerated from the cotton waste garments exhibited improved mechanical and molecular properties relative to the typical fibres regenerated from wood pulp. Furthermore the results have indicated that a suitable blend of wood pulp and pulp reclaimed form cotton based waste garments can produce fibres with properties that are intermediate to cotton and lyocell fibres. The results suggest an alternative approach to fibre resource management by converting cotton based waste garment through regeneration processing into second lifetime cellulosic fibre. The approach will contribute to the reduction of both economic and environmental impact of waste garments and better management of resources required for production of cotton and synthetic fibres.

Colloidal crystal (CC) thin films that produce structural colours over a wide visible spectrum have been self-assembled from silica nanoparticles (SNPs) using a natural sedimentation method. A series of colloidal suspensions containing uniform SNPs (207-350 nm) were prepared using the Stöber method. The prepared silica suspensions were directly subjected to natural sedimentation at an elevated temperature. The SNPs were deposited under the force of gravity and selfassembled into an ordered array. The solid CC thin films produced structural colours over a wide visible spectrum from red to violet. Visual inspection and colorimetric measurements indicated that the structural colour of the CC thin film is tuneable by varying the SNPs diameters and the viewing angles. The closely packed face-centred cubic (fcc) structure of the CC thin film was confirmed using SEM imaging and was in agreement with the intense colour observed from the film surface.

In this work, the Stöber process was applied to produce uniform silica nanoparticles (SNPs) in the meso-scale size range. The novel aspect of this work was to control the produced silica particle size by only varying the volume of the solvent ethanol used, whilst fixing the other reaction conditions. Using this one-step Stöber-based solvent varying (SV) method, seven batches of SNPs with target diameters ranging from 70 to 400 nm were repeatedly reproduced, and the size distribution in terms of the polydispersity index (PDI) was well maintained (within 0.1). An exponential equation was used to fit the relationship between the particle diameter and ethanol volume. This equation allows the prediction of the amount of ethanol required in order to produce particles of any target diameter within this size range. In addition, it was found that the reaction was completed in approximately 2 h for all batches regardless of the volume of ethanol. Structurally coloured artificial opal photonic crystals (PCs) were fabricated from the prepared SNPs by self-assembly under gravity sedimentation. Figureᅟ  Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11051-016-3691-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dimethylol dihydroxyethylene urea (DMDHEU)-treated cotton fabrics were treated with alkali or alternatively acid followed by alkali for increasing time periods, and their effectiveness in removing the crosslinking agent was investigated by surface (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) analysis, bulk analysis, crease recovery angle performance and solubility in specific solvents. The cellulose yield after the chemical stripping processes was established and the effect of the acid and alkali treatments on the degree of polymerisation of the resultant cellulose determined. Surface and bulk analyses and solubility tests suggested that alkali alone could not remove the DMDHEU from the crease-resist-treated cotton fabric. However, a sequential acid/alkali treatment effectively removed the easy-care finish from the cotton fabric and produced a commercially viable yield of cellulose.