Characterization For Biodegrad Ability And Ecology In Degradation Of Textile Fibers

The disposal of the fibers used in textiles is a serious challenge to waste management. Conventional methods for textile production waste management include land-filling, recycling and incineration. However, the recycling of waste textile production is not efficient. So the textile production deposited as waste while not take a pertinence measure to degrade, which might have an impact on environment and ecology. It is an unavoidable issue how to deal with the fiber waste.In this paper, wool, polylactic acid (PLA) and cotton, were assessed on their biodegradability under natural soil and aqueous medium conditions. It built a comprehensive evaluation system for textile fibre, involving the characterization of fibers’biodegradability performance and assessment of ecology about the degradation process.The present work was conducted to comparatively study the biodegradability of three fibers in natural soil and aqueous medium conditions. In conclusion, the study has revealed that although the wool, PLA and cotton are the same as a biodegradable material, their degradation period and rate is not the same, the rate of degradation of cotton fiber is the fastest. The PLA fiber showed a slight initial degradation rate in both environments. PLA is considered to be degradable, however, the result discovers that the biodegradation of PLA in natural environment proceeds relatively slowly in comparison with natural fibers.The degradation mechanisms of three fibers are different. Wool, in soil, crystalline region is destroyed and fiber has broken. While in aqueous medium, wool fiber swelled and its crystalline region decreases a little. In the two environments, PLA fiber began hydrolyzing, noncrystalline region disintegrates firstly, because of the reduce of amorphous, the degree of crystallinity increased. For cotton fiber in the soil and the aqueous medium, the degradation mechanism are the same. The macromolecular chain is damaged, crystalline region collapse, and at the same time, fiber broke down.Compared two kinds of degradation conditions, natural soil is more active and the degradation ability is greater than the aqueous medium, due to the rich microorganism in soil. Biodegradation activities in natural soil were more efficient and faster than that in aqueous medium. Thus, it is faster to dispose of the textile waste with landfill. Considering the application scope of PLA, which mainly used as biomedical of sewing thread, etc., it’s better to degradation in human body fluids environment.The biodegradation of fiber used in textile has different levels of impact on the environment, especially if it disposed into water, which would cause water pollution. Therefore, from an ecological standpoint, biodegradation of textile waste is not the best way to handle it. Production textile fiber raw material is valuable, after the use, the best way is to recycle. Textile recycling has more significance and economic value.