Mechanical and Morphological Properties of Cellulosic Fabrics Treated with Microencapsulated Essential Oils

Abstract

This study focused on the mechanical and morphological properties of lignocellulosic heritage textiles (cotton and hemp) made using eco-friendly salvia and thyme microencapsulated essential oils, characterized by low toxicity for humans and the environment. A morphological evaluation of the tested fabrics was performed using scanning electron microscopy. The ATR–FTIR spectra of the untreated and treated fabric samples were tested using Perkin Elmer, Spectrum 3. A tensile test of the samples was conducted based on the ISO 13934-1 using a MESDAN-Lab tensile strength tester. According to the analysis, the salvia improved the tensile strength of the fabric by 20% and 39% in the warp and weft directions, respectively. The data for the untreated cotton, untreated hemp, and fabrics treated with salvia and thyme were processed using the kernel PCA method. From the principal component analysis it was found that the textile fabrics treated with salvia coalesced close to the untreated ones. This shows that treatment with essential oils from the indicated plant does not significantly affect the tensile properties of textile fabrics. The thymol-treated textile fabrics were significantly distant from those of the control sample. In cotton textile fabrics, thymol treatment was found to have a significant effect on their tensile properties. In hemp fabrics, two types of thymol and salvia treatments were found to have a very significant effect on the tensile strength performance of the textile fabrics. The results obtained can be used in museums, universities, and ethnographic studies that own or maintain collections of heritage textiles.

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Antibacterial Efficacy of Peppermint Oil Microcapsules on Denim: A Comparative Study of Washing Resistance

“…According to the results, textiles treated with essential oils of the litsea and lemon microemulsion have potent antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, S. epidermidis and T. rubrum. After treating microencapsulated essential oil, Indrie et al [32] investigated cellulosic fabrics' mechanical and morphological properties. Within the morphological evaluation tests, SEM, and ATR-FTIR analyses were carried out.…”

Adsorption of Fragrance Capsules onto Cellulose Nano- and Micro-Cellulose Fibers in Presence of Guar Biopolymers

“…A solution to this issue came from the encapsulation technology [16], permitting long-lasting perfume activity due to a controlled fragrance release. Recently, a major effort has been devoted to the development of such micron-sized capsules [11,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Synthetic or natural polymers, inorganic materials, and polymer-inorganic composites have been identified as chemical compounds for capsule scaffolds [3,18].…”

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