Present Situation Of R&D 

For Functional Chemical 
Fiber

Ghazanfar Abbas
 Definition of functional fiber
• Functional fiber refers to the fibers
which can exhibit some special
functions while remain the traits of
ordinary fibers.
• The fiber can show various
functions such as soft, dyeing,
antistatic, flame retardant,
absorptive etc. It can resemble the
traits of natural fiber.
 Production methods

• Fabric treatment
• Produce functional fibers directly
 Functional fiber types
• Sanitarian fiber
• Defendable fiber
• Comfortable feeling fiber
• Functional fiber for medical use
 1. Sanitarian fiber
• For this type of fiber, there are
antibacterial fiber, negative ion
fiber, miticidal, odor removable
fiber etc.
 Antibacterial fiber
• Currently, there are two
approaches to process
antibacterial fiber and fabric.

 Finishing
 Modification
A contrast sheet between two processing methods
Processing Application Process Characteristics
method scope

Be applied to With padding or Simple process, low

various fabric coating, the fiber cost and easy
types. Especially can show good application.but
for natural fiber, effect. product can’t bear
finishing it is exclusive washing and last
way to give fiber long. Some organic
antibacterial agents is toxic and
effect. volatile.

Be applied to Physical and Long lasting effect,

synthetic fiber chemical wash wear and
modification, steady quality fiber.
modification composite Good touch and
spinning healthy fabric.
 Antibacterial theory
• Modification gives synthetic fiber
antibacterial activity.
• The activity comes from the special
active group in the molecule chain of
fiber or introduces antibacterial
active group to react with germ and
kill germ in the end.
• According to different process and
application, various antibacterial
agents can be applied in high quality
antibacterial fiber production. There
are three types of antibacterial
agents.
Natural agent: such as chitosan
Organic agent: such as quarternary
ammonium salt
Inorganic agent: such as silver ion
• Silver agent is most wide-spectrum
antibacterial agent with very low toxity .
• CTA has developed a silver antibacterial
master batch and fibers.
 Negative ion fiber
• In 1880, French scientists firstly found
tourmaline has a very good effect on
people’s health and environment.
• In 1986, after more than 1 year’s
research, two scientists in Tokyo
University processed tourmaline into
super tiny crystal (0.1µm) and mixed it
into spinning dope to produce negative
ion functional fiber.
 The principle of negative ion’s
sanitarian effect
• Negative ion can neutralize the
acidic matter on human’s body.
• The tiny power current passes
through people’s skin and transmits
to nerve center from nerve ending.
• The blood circulation and pain
restraint effect are produced by
thus way.
• There are three materials to
produce negative ion textiles.

Ancient deposit ore on the

seabed,such as diatomite .
Natural ore such as tourmaline.
Radioactive ore with low
radioactivity.
 Negative ion textiles process

• There are three methods to

process negative ion textiles:
Add superfine negative ion
powder into spinning dope to
produce negative ion fiber.
Process superfine negative ion
powder into slurry and coat on
fabric.
Connect active group in new
negative material with hydroxyl
and amino group on fiber to
form covalent bond which lead
to good quality anion fabric.
• Negative ion textiles can
emit low radioactivity which
contact with oxygen and
carbon dioxide and water
molecule to lead ionization
and emit negative ion
continually.
 Negative ion textiles evaluation
standard
• It is believed to be a healthy
space only when negative ion
amount can reach 4000.
• For bed gown, 5000/cm3
emission amount of negative
ion is available when for old
people, over 15000/cm3 is
better.
 Negative ion products application

• Negative ion products are

processed into high grade
fabrics, shirt and underwear.
• They are also can be used in
furnishing, such as window
curtain, bedding and sofa
cloth etc.
• Car inside furnishing fabrics
and sanitarian goods such as
kneepad, shoulder protector
also use negative ion
products.
 2. Defendable fiber

• This category includes anti

static fiber, radiation
resistant fiber, flame
retardant fiber and
antimosquito fiber etc.
 Antistatic fiber

• It is found that when adding

conducting matter such as carbon
black, carbon fiber or metal
ramification into polymer, and then by
composite spinning technology, the
conducting fiber with excellent
conductivity and long lasting effect is
produced.
The development of antistatic fiber

• metal fiber
• carbon fiber
• conducting packing fiber
• conducting composite fiber
 Fiber types Advantage Disadvantage

Metal fiber Good conductivity Bad integration with

ordinary fiber and high
cost for superfine fiber.

Carbon fiber Low resistance High modulus and low

bending strength, lack of
tenacity.

Conducting packing Low resistance Conducting matter is easily

fiber stripped after washing and
friction.

Conducting composite Low cost carbon black and

fiber good conductivity with
adjustable conduction scope
 Conducting fiber development
history
• In 1974, Du Pont firstly
developed CB type sheath core
conducting composite fiber
Antron Ⅲ.
• In 80th, the conducting
composite fiber products in
Japan had reached about 200
tons.
• CTA have formed the
whole set of conducting
composite fiber
production technology
and produced good
quality composite
conducting fiber
products.
 Conducting fiber application

• It is mainly
used in
military
equipment,
overalls, high
grade wool
products etc.
• It can also be
used in
information
and precision
manufacture
industry,
sanitarian
field, hotel
and oil
station.
 Anti-mosquito fiber

• There are usually two ways to

prevent from sting.

chemical or biological method

personal protection by
different equipments
• As a traditional and cheap
mosquito equipment,mosquito
net is most popular in the
market.
• Traditional mosquito net can
only prevent a few
mosquitoes, it can’t prevent
attacks of large numbers
mosquitoes and eradiate them.
• In order to offset these
deficiency, CTA has developed
anti-mosquito polyester net.
• Next are its traits:

 a slow release effect

 the long lasting effect of
mosquito lethality
 not harmful to people’s health
 high anti-mosquito and
mosquito lethality
Antimosquito fiber application fields

• mosquito net
• military
• curtain products
• geological investigation
• crude oil exploration
 3. Comfortable feeling fiber

• This type of fiber includes

moisture absorptive, sweating
and temperature adjustable
functional fiber.
 Moisture absorptive and
fast dry fiber
• Natural fiber such as cotton
possess a good hydrophilic
performance and a bad dry
ability while traditional
synthetic fiber shows the
opposite way.
 Di f f use area f or di f f erent f i ber
f abri c( i n 30s)

di f f use 1000 680

area( squ 800 PET
are 600 380 nyl on
mi l l i met 400
er) 200
90 cot t on
0
• In order to modify to fiber
and give it adsorptive and
fast dry ability, there are
chemical and physical
methods to change
hydrophobic fiber into
hydrophilic fiber.
chemical method:adsorptive
fiber is produced by react
ordinary polymer with reactive
matter.
physical method:we can make
physical treatment on the fiber
to facilitate capillary effect
and increase adsorptive ability
of fiber.
 New modified polyester with good
hydrophilic ability

hollow tiny porous fiber

special section fiber
surface tiny groove fiber
Hollow tiny porous fiber
 Special section fiber
• It is refer to fibers with
non-circular section.
• According to section
shape, there are:
Cross type
W type
Y type
H type
U type
• Fast dry ability is improved
by :
 outside groove
 air permeability of fabric and
specific area of fiber are
increased
 capillary effect of fabric are
improved
• Among adsorptive and fast dry
fiber with special section,
cross section fiber is most
common.
• In 1986, Du Pont developed
cross section fiber CoolMax
with four grooves on the
surface.
• It has been very popular
because of its excellent
adsorptive and fast dry ability.
• CTA has developed unique
sweat-absorption & fast dry
yarn and fabric.
• With special designed
structure and function, It has
gain wide market in China.
Surface tiny groove fiber
• The improved
adsorptive and
fast dry ability
of fabric which
make skin feel
dry and cool is
exhibited due
to:
 The tiny groove on fiber surface can
bring out “capillary phenomenon”.
 To mix with hydrophilic matter or
composite spinning can also improve
the hydrophilic adsorptive ability of
fiber.
 Finish with hydrophilic matter can
change the hydrophilic performance
of its surface.
Temperature adjustable fiber and balmy
fiber
• Recently, it is reported that
scientists in United State has
developed a deodorant and
anti-bacterial fiber.
• The tiny capsule technology is
applied in the development of
this type of fiber.
• There are many compositions
in the tiny capsule.
• One is antibacterial matter and
essence which can be
evaporated to prevent odor.
• The other is phase change
matter. The temperature
adjustable function can be
achieved by the phase change
heat of material.
• The ultraviolet radiation
adsorbent is added into fiber
to give fabric multi-function.
• When evenly mixing essence
or balmy tiny capsule into
chips to spin or placing
essence into core by sheath
core spinning, balmy fiber is
produced.
• Balmy fiber and its fabric is a
kind of product with high
additional value.
4. Functional fiber for medical use
• Functional fiber for medical
use is the result from life
science and material science.
• It should also provide
biological compatibility and
biological degradation ability
besides ordinary
performances.
 Chitin fiber

• main traits :
good biological compatibility
strong biological activity
the function of antiinflammation,
pain ease,haemostasia and
antibacterial
good biological degradation
• Chitin is a natural glucidamin
polymer abstracted from shell
of shrimp, crab and insects.
 Chitin fiber for clothes

• microorganism
restraint and odor
adsorption
• comfortable wearing
and no simulative to
skin and adaptive to
infants to wear
Chitin fiber for medical use

• wound dressing
• materials for
bone defection
• repair materials
for nerve
damnification
 Alginic fiber

• Alginic fiber includes different

compositions such as sodium
alginic, calcium alginic, alginic
acid, mannose and glucose.
• This material has gained wide
recognization and application
in medical industry of world
wide.
 Curative effect

• Alginic fiber is fit for gauze,

especially in bleeding,
suppuration.
• Excellent adsorptive ability is
one of major features of alginic
fiber.When calcified alginic
acid can adsorb 17 times of
body liquid.
• The fiber can show haemostasia
effect in only 5 minutes. Its
curative effect for abscess can
reach to 80% while ordinary gauze
can only reach to 30%.
• At present, CTA has developed the
production technology of alginic
fiber and its nonwoven product
and can fully meet various
requirements.
 The development situation of
functional fiber

• The functional textiles account

for 39% of all textiles in Japan
while output of differential
fiber account for 50 % of
synthetic fiber.
• New fibers come from natural
source that are
environmentally friendly and
easy processing and can
provide high performance and
easy care have been developed
continuously in China.
 Bamboo fiber

• Using bamboo which is

uniquely abundant in
China, China has
developed bamboo fiber.
• Bamboo fiber has become
increasingly popular at
present.
• Bamboo fiber is a long hollow fiber which is
antiallergenic and can dye well.
• It can be blended with other natural or
man-made fiber and can fully satisfy
customers’needs.
 Bamboo fiber types
• There are two types for bamboo
fiber:
Viscose:to process bamboo material
into slurry and get the regenerated
fiber.
Fibril:get rid of the lignin in
bamboo. It’s a kind of high
adsorptive fiber with different
sections.
 Other types

• Now there are varieties of

functional fibers with wide range of
properties have been developed.
• Among them, flame retardant, far
infrared, ultra-UV, antibacterial
fiber have formed a certain degree
production scale.
 Functional fiber
development in China

• As the largest manufacturer and

customer nation of chemical fiber in the
world as well as most rapidly developed
country in chemical fiber production
scale, China has many advantages and
experiences in research, production and
equipment.
• However, because of over production of
ordinary products while large amounts
of high performance, differential fibers
and fabrics are still imported every
year, reconstruction and modification to
chemical fiber industry to develop more
functional fiber products have been a
primary topic in chemical fiber industry.
 R&D have developed various type of
functional fibers:

antibacterial
conductive
flame retardant
adsorptive and fast dry
biological
THANK YOU