The increasing population in a worldwide and the developments in industrialization bring environmental problems have made the concept of "sustainability" even more important in recent years. In the textile sector, where production and consumption are intense, the interest in research and development of innovative solutions that support sustainability has increased. Polylactic acid (PLA) as a natural biodegradable polymer is encountered as a solution to reduce the waste problem in the textile industry. PLA fabrics is an important complement to fabrics produced using natural fibers such as; cotton, hemp, silk etc. Researches are ongoing to improve the performance of PLA nonwoven fabrics which is a green and sustainable alternative of synthetic nonwoven fabrics especially used in medical textile sector. Due to increasing environmental concerns natural, sustainable, and biodegradable functional coating systems which are applied for the surface modifications of textiles have gained more importance. In the coatings industry, polyurethanes (PUs) are an important class of polymers with outstanding mechanical, chemical, and physical properties. However, since solvent-based conventional PUs contain volatile organic compounds, which are costly and harmful to human health, environmentally friendly water-borne PUs (WPUs) have been developed. In this study, lignin/WPU formulations prepared at different lignin concentrations were coated on biodegradable PLA spunlace nonwoven fabrics by means of a film applicator. The effect of lignin concentration in the lignin/WPU formulations on the color values and hydrophobicity properties of PLA spunlace nonwoven fabrics was investigated. The chemical structure of the thermally cured lignin/WPU films and the coatings applied on the fabric were analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively.
"The author acknowledge The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for the financial support (project number: 122M737). ORCID NO: 0000-0001-6681-868X"
Anahtar Kelimeler: Thermal curing, water-borne polyurethane, lignin, polylactic acid nonwoven fabric, sustainability
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