A novel and feasible material recycling technique for end-of-life textiles as All-Cellulose Composites (ACCs)

Sammanfattning: Today’s consumption of textiles generates a large volume of textile waste. Therefore, it is needed to find solutions to re-use the textile waste rather recycling fibers into new fibers. Research using pre- and post-consumer textiles in composites is ongoing and an interesting direction. This thesis reports the recycling of discharged cellulose containing textiles by production of all-cellulose composites (ACCs). ACCs are composites consisting entirely of cellulose. ACCs from discarded denim and polycotton hospital sheets (PCO) were successfully produced with partial dissolution and two-step method. Discarded denim fabrics with 100% cotton (CO) and blend material (BCO) was sorted and shredded into fibers, then made into nonwovens by needle punching. The produced nonwoven laminates and intact hospital sheets were used as the reinforcement in the composites while dissolved cellulose in an ionic liquid (IL), 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium acetate ([BMIM][Ac]), was used as the matrix phase. The matrix is then regenerated by removal of the [BMIM][Ac] by washing to form the composite. The washed-out [BMIM][Ac] was collected and recycled in order to study the effect of its reusing as recycled cellulose solvent on mechanical properties of ACCs. Combinations of the different methods, materials and solvents were studied. The mechanical properties – tensile, flexural and impact properties and the void content of the produced composites were deter-mined. Microscopic analysis was done to study the cross-section of the composites. It could be concluded that the achieved values for the mechanical properties can be compared with ACCs found in literature. The results from the research implies that it is possible to find a new purpose for recycled textiles in the form of composites. With this approach, it is possible to avoid unnecessary disposal of textiles containing cellulose.