Composite Eco-Friendly Sound Absorbing Materials Made of Recycled Textile Waste and Biopolymers

Abstract

In recent years, the interest in reusing recycled fibers as building materials has been growing as a consequence of their ability to reduce the production of waste and the use of virgin resources, taking advantage of the potential that fibrous materials may offer to improve thermal and acoustic comfort. Composite panels, made of 100% wool waste fibers and bound by means of either a chitosan solution and a gum Arabic solution, were tested and characterized in terms of acoustic and non-acoustic properties. Samples with a 5 cm thickness and different density values were made to investigate the influence of flow resistivity on the final performance. Experimental results demonstrated that the samples had thermal conductivity ranging between 0.049 and 0.060 W/(m K), well comparable to conventional building materials. Similarly, acoustic results were very promising, showing absorption coefficients that, for the given thickness, were generally higher than 0.5 from 500 Hz on, and higher than 0.9 from 1 kHz on. Finally, the effects of the non-acoustic properties and of the air gap behind the samples on the acoustic behavior were also analyzed, proving that the agreement with absorption values predicted by empirical models was also very good.

Fabrication and performance evaluation of waste cotton and polyester fiber‐reinforced green composites for building and construction applications

“…[ 6 ] Multiple studies detailed textile waste‐reinforced composites as a replacement of wood or wood particle boards. Rubino et al [ 22 ] reported composite materials made of wool fibers extracted from waste woolen textiles and chitosan and gum arabic for thermal and sound insulation applications for the building industry. Temmink et al [ 23 ] studied composites reinforced with denim jeans fabric waste.…”

Eco-Sustainability of the Textile Production: Waste Recovery and Current Recycling in the Composites World

“…In the work of Rubino et al [ 64 ], composite panels have been made from wool waste fibers in the form of cut fabrics, bound through two different polysaccharides: a chitosan solution from crustacean by-products, and a gum Arabic solution from the Acacia tree. The material has been designed for potential building construction by experimenting with the sound absorbing and thermal insulating properties.…”

Application of Innovative Ropes from Textile Waste as an Anti-Erosion Measure

“…Thus, based on the results of various tests, the authors in [ 3 ] stated that their researched textile waste fibers can be incorporated into mortars, thereby replacing sand and cement by volume and adding advantages, such as improved cracking behavior. The authors in [ 4 ] investigated the performance of composite materials obtained from the use of fibers derived from recycled textile wastes (100% merino wool), combined with different binders, to be used as building materials with sound absorption and thermal insulation properties. The results confirmed that such materials have similar or better performance than conventional thermal insulating and sound-absorbing materials.…”