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ePaper created 2017-03-14, 10:25:37 | version 1.49.03
CHEMISTRY AND PROCESS INDUSTRY 1 BIOINSPIRED FLUOROCARBON-FREE WATER REPELLENT AGENTS FOR TEXTILES M i cha e l R i chte r, Chr is t ina Fa l t l, Pat r i cia H u b e r, M i cha e l H ofe r Environmentally compatible textile equipment Textile inishing, aiming to provide the textiles with water and dirt repellent properties, usually requires the use of harmful chemicals. Nature-derived water repellent (“hydrophobing“) agents are environmentally compatible alternatives. Innovative approaches to the low-pollutant production of water-repellent functional molecules, which are entirely harmless to humans and the environment, are therefore of great importance in the textile industry. For this reason, in collaboration with Hohen- stein institutes in Bönnigheim, the BioCat Straubing branch of Fraunhofer IGB is researching the production and application of such bio-inspired water repellent agents. Nature as a role model The basic concept of the project is borrowed from nature. Agents offering hydrophobic performance are composed of functional proteins and can be produced by biotechnological processes from renewable raw materials. The hydrophobic proteins occur in nature as hydrophobins in fungi, for ex- ample. Among other things, they play an important role in affecting the surface tension of water during the formation of aerial mycelia. As amphiphilic proteins, hydrophobins can form very hydrophobic (water-repellent) layers on a material surface by non-covalent interactions, when their hydrophobic part is directed away from the material side. Proteins from nature are also used to bind the selected hydrophobins speciically in a targeted manner to cellulose- containing textiles; these cellulose-anchoring proteins occur, for example, in natural enzymes such as cellulases. The resulting bi-functional fusion proteins can then be applied to various textiles and should reveal their unique hydrophobic properties there. In a feasibility study, anchoring proteins have already been successfully tested for selective and irm binding to cellulose textiles. Biological alternative to chemicals The bio-inspired functional proteins are developed in order to present a sustainable and robust alternative to the per- luorinated and polyluorinated chemicals used to date in the water-repellent inishing of textiles. They are very controversial due to their manufacturing processes and environmental com- patibility, and are subject to growing regulatory pressure. The project covers all necessary work in molecular biology, pro- tein, surface and textile chemistry. It is being supported by a committee composed of representatives of the textile industry and the biotechnology sector. Thus, the basic conditions for the implementation of the project’s objectives and industrial feasibility are ideally met from the outset. 7 6