Rare-earth ions as antibacterial agents for woven wool fabric.

Woven fabrics were bestowed with antibacterial property by the simple adsorption of rare-earth metal ions, and the underlying mechanism was investigated using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. The adsorption of Ce3+ ions on wool, silk, and cotton fabrics resulted in significant inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus (a gram-positive bacterium), with maximum antibacterial activities (viable bacterial count compared to the reference) of 4.7, 5.8, and 5.2, respectively. Even after 50 wash cycles, the values remained at 3.9, 2.9, and 4.8, respectively. The adsorption of La3+ and Gd3+ ions on wool fabrics also resulted in antibacterial activities of 5.8 and 5.9, respectively. In addition, wool adsorbed with Ce3+ exhibits a satisfactory antibacterial activity of 6.2 against Escherichia coli (a gram-negative bacterium). Such bacterial inhibition is attributed to Fenton reactions between the adsorbed rare-earth ions and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) produced during bacterial metabolism, as determined from the ESR spectra collected using the spin trap method in the presence of H2O2. The safety of cerium nitrate was also investigated, and no significant issues arose, indicating that it was a safe antibacterial agent. This facile method of imparting antibacterial properties to natural fabrics may be useful for preventing infections in humans. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11696-021-01999-9.

Fabrication of Silk Resin with High Bending Properties by Hot-Pressing and Subsequent Hot-Rolling.

This research reports the processability and mechanical properties of silk resins prepared by hot-pressing followed by hot-rolling and then analyzes their thermal and structural properties. The results show that regenerated silk (RS) resins are better suited for hot-rolling than Eri and Bombyx mori silk resins (untreated silk). When hot-rolling at 160 °C with a 50% of reduction ratio, maximum bending strength and Young's modulus of RS resin reaches 192 MPa and 10.2 GPa, respectively, after pretreatment by immersion in 40 vol% ethanol, and 229 MPa and 12.5 GPa, respectively, after pretreatment by immersion in boiling water. Increased strength of the material is attributed to the increased content of aggregated strands and intramolecular linking of ß sheets (attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) and higher crystallinity (X-ray diffraction analysis). After hot-pressing and hot-rolling, RS resins have a stable decomposition temperature (297 °C).

Dataset on mechanical, thermal and structural characterization of plant fiber-based biopolymers prepared by hot-pressing raw coconut coir, and milled powders of cotton, waste bagasse, wood, and bamboo.

This article presents experimental data on visual, mechanical, thermal, and structural characterization by hot-pressing four sources of milled plant powders and coconut fibers. It correlates chemical composition obtained by (FTIR), particle size, and reports bending strength, water resistance morphological (SEM) and thermal stability, structural properties (FTIR and XRD). It further supplements findings of the influence of microfibrillation and chemical composition on hot-pressing plant fibers as presented in the research article "Effects of Chemical Composition, Mild Alkaline Pretreatment and Particle Size on Mechanical, Thermal, and Structural Properties of Binderless Lignocellulosic Biopolymers Prepared by Hot-Pressing Raw Microfibrillated Phoenix Dactylifera and Cocos Nucifera Fibers and Leaves" [1]. For more insights into the difference among non-lignin-, lignin-, and semi lignin-based adhesion refer to the research article [1]. This dataset is made publicly available for potential reuse in recycling agricultural waste fibers for value-added materials.