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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Max Kelly, Dr Neil Lant, Dr Rolando Berlinguer PalminiORCiD, Professor Grant Burgess
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 The Authors. Pilling is a form of textile mechanical damage, forming fibrous bobbles on the surface of garments, resulting in premature disposal of clothing by consumers. However, our understanding on how the structural properties of the cellulosic matrix compliment the three-dimensional shape of cotton pills remains limited. This knowledge gap has hindered the development of effective ‘pillase’ technologies over the past 20 years due to challenges in balancing depilling efficacy with fabric integrity preservation. Therefore, the main focus here was characterising the role of cellulose and the hemicellulose components in cotton textiles to elucidate subtle differences between the chemistry of pills and fibre regions involved in structural integrity. State-of-the-art bioimaging using carbohydrate binding modules, monoclonal antibodies, and Leica SP8 and a Nikon A1R confocal microscopes, revealed the biophysical structure of cotton pills for the first time. Identifying regions of increased crystalline cellulose in the base of anchor fibres and weaker amorphous cellulose at dislocations in their centres, enhancing our understanding of current enzyme specificity. Surprisingly, pills contained a 7-fold increase in the concentration of xyloglucan compared to the main textile. Therefore, xyloglucan offers a previously undescribed target for overcoming this benefit-to-risk paradigm, suggesting a role for xyloglucanase enzymes in future pillase systems.
Author(s): Kelly MR, Lant NJ, Berlinguer-Palmini R, Burgess JG
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Carbohydrate Polymers
Year: 2024
Volume: 339
Print publication date: 01/09/2024
Online publication date: 08/05/2024
Acceptance date: 07/05/2024
Date deposited: 20/05/2024
ISSN (print): 0144-8617
ISSN (electronic): 1879-1344
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122243
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122243
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