Developing moisture-sensitive artificial muscles from industrialized natural fibers with large abundance is highly desired for smart textiles that can respond to humidity or temperature change. However, currently most of fiber artificial muscles are based on non-common industrial textile materials or of a small portion of global textile fiber market. In this paper, we developed moisture-sensitive torsional artificial muscles and textiles based on cotton yarns. It was prepared by twisting the cotton yarn followed by folding in the middle point to form a self-balanced structure. The cotton yarn muscle showed a torsional stroke of 42.55 °/mm and a rotational speed of 720 rpm upon exposure to water moisture. Good reversibility and retention of stroke during cyclic exposure and removal of water moisture were obtained. A moisture-sensitive smart window that can close when it rains was demonstrated based on the torsional cotton yarn muscles. This twist-based technique combining natural textile fibers provides a new insight for construction of smart textile materials.
Scale could be inhibited by adding polymer inhibitors. In this
article, water-soluble polymer, AA–TPEO, was synthesized successfully,
which was characterized by FT-IR and 1H NMR. Its stability
was studied and its molecular weight was measured using gel permeation
chromatography. Through the static scale-inhibition method, the effect
of several parameters on the inhibition efficiency of CaCO3, such as composition and dose, molecular weight, pH, temperature,
and ion concentration of solution, was investigated. It was found
that when the molar ratio was 1:2 (TPEO/AA), the inhibition efficiency
could reach 89%, better than common inhibitors. The appropriate molecular
weight (Mw) was 17158 g/mol. The supersaturation had been studied,
which had a great influence on scale-inhibition efficiency. Meanwhile,
the effect of the polymer’s composition and dose on the inhibition
efficiency toward Ca3(PO4)2 was investigated.
The best molar ratio was 3:1 (TPEO/AA). At last, the polymer’s
effectiveness on scale crystal was assessed using XRD.
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