Have you seen this new detergent ad? The one in which stains are shown removed with just a bit of scrubbing, clothes that look new even after a dozen wash and the fragrance which makes you feel fresh. Now see this. Nano-Tex, an advanced material based company’s ‘products for public’ has garbs that can suck sweat and keep dry, the stains clear in seconds or just a hand-wipe and the wrinkles vanish. Is this real? Yes. Nano technology-enabled textiles are here and waiting to cause ripples in the consumer mind and market.

Nanotechnology provides the ability to work on a nano or submicron scale to create intelligent structures that are stronger and have fundamentally different, performance-enhancing molecular organizations. Working on a nano-scale allows the building of molecular architectures that can be specifically designed to create desirable attributes in fabrics. This type of enhancement is the most powerful method of uniting a performance benefit with your most marketable textiles.

10-9 textiles
Science has always seen Nano-technology since its inception but we are seeing it now in trousers and shirts. This nano technology is just a lower end (basic) usage of what could be done in textile industry but its domain outside is big and blooming. “Nano technology’s brobdingnagian costs are the only lump on its growth-road,” says Prof. Satish Kumar of Georgia University. Nano technology used in the textiles today are something of smaller scale or possibly the side-advantages of this mammoth science, is the consensus among Scientists.

Nanotechnology, though still very early in its infancy, is already proving to be a useful tool in improving the performance of textiles. With increased performance comes added value and additional revenue. One company to realise this has been the Burlington Industries subsidiary, Nano-Tex.

Branded as one of the ‘coolest’ products in 2003 by Time Magazine, Nano-Tex is providing clothing manufactures such as Levi’s, Eddie Bauer, GAP and Old Navy the means to make their products more durable, water and oil repellent, stain resistant and have the reduced need for washing, all without altering the feel of the fabric.
Their chemical formulation and application technology, which is easily adopted by existing textile mills, changes the fabric itself on a molecular level, embedding it with tiny, floppy, hair like fibres that themselves are attached to a common spine. The ‘nano whiskers’ in the chemical mix keeps stains away from soaking into clothing.

Clarifies Nitin Jain, Indian head of Nano-Tex, “Our technology involves three unique processes in apparel making. Firstly, polyesters are treated with chemical compounds that make it absorb moisture and stain, like cotton. By doing this we achieve the desired qualities of cotton—comfort and durability—in polyester. Nano technology-enabled textiles are using the principles of polymer science where three or four kinds of chemicals that are compatible with each other and whose inherent chemistry would provide the desired characteristics, of repellency, are configured. Secondly, the application happens where the rolls of woven fabric from the textile mills are immersed in liquid containing trillions of nano-fibers. Then the cotton, now permuted with the nano-fibers, is dried in the oven and the chain of the molecules realign themselves on the surface of the fabric to assemble themselves in an orderly matrix. Finally, applying solid depositors on the surface of the fabric would make it nano-enabled product.”

Business In Nano-Tex
Nano-Tex, a leader in nano-textile has emerged, since 1998, as a proprietary company and its business strategy are five-fold, says Donn Tice, the CEO. “We have had good growing business and our first priority was to increase our penetration in the U.S. apparel market and to mark an impression. Then, we concentrated on expanding geographically; today we have eight offices worldwide with a clientele of 50 textile mills and signed agreements with more than 30 leading apparel and interior furnishings brands, including Levi, Gap, Raymond, Lee, Nike, Champion, Marks & Spencer, Park Avenue and Simmons.” Thirdly, brand building is the core focus and this is done by on-product demanding and also with increase amount of retail promotion. And, “we can sense the rapid uptake in the middle class segment so brand building can help in consumer growth,” says Tice. Tice’s fourth step in business strategy is to launch new products into the market with the existing four and he foresees bright prospects for his intelligent fabric.

Nano-Tex’s competitors like Du Pont and Scholler and many others are also vying for consumer market, but “the nano-fiber technology is an exclusive principle, which can offer fashion clothes with extreme comfort, breathable structuring and like-natural feeling,” says Nano-Tex.

Who can Get Nano?
Nano-Tex has a well-defined scale as to who can be their customers. All the customer should have is a well-maintained infrastructure and the right attitude in textiling. “This technology needs no upgrading of infrastructure and no big capital flow,” says Jain. “The first step in issuing license starts with the short-listing of the production mills; we do a virtual auditing about the mill and measure its potential and also the level of interest in product manufacturing. Finally the company’s fabric is sent for a performance and quality check-up to our research labs and then the license is issued. A mutuality agreement is executed and then we would send chemicals to companies or customers free of charge and we also give personal assistance in training the mill staff in application,” explains Jain, “We have no upfront licensing but we have a recurring royalty based on the yarn sold.

Nano Uses
The use of nanotechnology is allowing textiles to become multifunctional. For instance, Plasma technology is being used to modify the top nanometer layers of textiles, allowing them to be made antibacterial, fungicidal and water repellent. Other areas of interest include heat resistant and mechanically resilient work wear, ballistic protection, sensors and camouflage.

Nanoparticles have been used to provide the controlled release of fragrances,biocides and antifungals on textiles, leading to the expression, ‘Freshness you can wear’. Ciba Specialty Chemicals (CSC) is modifying fibres on the basis of nanocontainer microcapsules that prevent bacterial growth by releasing antimicrobiotics. The same technology is used to absorb odours. Kanebo Spinning Corp of Japan has produced a polyester yarn with thirty times the ability of normal polyester to absorb moisture. The yarn, suitable for use in undergarments, has twenty layers for containing moisture and oil content. The layers have a total thickness of fifty nano meters.

Teijin Fibres Ltd of Japan has held trials in the production of luminescent polyester. A polyester substrate is covered with approximately sixty layers of polyester and nylon that have different refractive indices for light. The layers, which are only approximately sixty-nine nano meters thick, refract the light to create a ‘mystical’ hue that changes according the viewpoint of the observer and the angle the light hits the fabric.

Nanotechnology is seeing applications in other sciences—aircraft material, biotechnology, and so on. The textile application is a first-to-market success and is a harbinger of other innovations being attempted in labs across the world. Aligning atoms to precise configurations holds immense potential, but as they say, you many want to cut the cloth to suit the coat—this time around cut a nano-cloth.