Love only cotton? Please don't be prejudiced against chemical fiber fabrics

Clothing, shoes and socks, household items, daily life everywhere can not be separated from textiles. In the purchase, in addition to the majority of consumers will look at the color, style, there will be a very important judgment criteria, that is, the material. In general, silk, cotton, hemp, wool and other natural materials are very popular with the public, the corresponding, containing nylon, brocade, viscose and other words of chemical fiber and artificial materials, often rejected.

What are the advantages of natural fabrics? Are chemicals and man-made fibers really bad? Isn't it time to change these stereotypes?

In fact, whether it is natural fibers, chemical fibers or man-made fibers, they have their own advantages and disadvantages. The blended fabric combines the advantages of different fibers and realizes the complementarity between each other. When we choose clothes, the most correct way is to choose textiles of different materials according to the needs of the use scene.

The difference between natural and chemical fibers

The most basic unit of textiles is fiber, according to the source classification, textile fibers are divided into natural fibers and chemical fibers.

Natural fibers provided the first shading and cold protection materials for human development. In the Indian subcontinent 5,000 years ago, people began to spin yarn from cotton fibers; In ancient Egypt, in the Nile Valley, flax was widely cultivated by humans to make clothing; As early as 5,000 years ago, the working people of China began to plant mulberry, raise silkworms, draw silk and weave silk, and formed a unique silk dress culture.

At present, cotton fibers, hemp fibers, wool fibers and silk fibers (referred to as cotton and hemp silk wool) are still the main natural materials for everyone's daily clothing and textiles. These natural materials have their own advantages, but they also have certain defects.

Different from the natural fibers given to human beings by animals and plants in nature, chemical fibers are a kind of fibers made by chemical methods.

Chemical fiber according to the raw materials and composition can be divided into: chemical synthetic fiber, man-made fiber (usually also known as recycled fiber), inorganic fiber.

The history of chemical fibers is only more than 100 years. The first chemical fiber invented by humans was viscose fiber, which was introduced in 1893, and its success quickly expanded the family of chemical fibers.

In the face of the name of the very "academic" artificial fiber, how should we distinguish? Very simple, in the purchase of textiles and clothing often see the end of the "nylon" fibers, are generally chemical synthetic fibers. Such as polyester, nylon, acrylic, spandex, polypropylene and so on. Synthetic fiber is a small molecule of organic compounds as raw materials, by addition polymerization reaction or polycondensation reaction synthesis of organic polymer compounds. The source of most synthetic fibers is from petroleum, and the petrochemical system extracts and separates the layers to obtain the small molecular organic compounds needed to produce such fibers.

Chemical synthetic fibers made from petroleum raw materials are sometimes referred to as "petroleum-based fibers." In terms of output, synthetic fibers are the largest category of chemical fibers and even the entire textile fiber family. In 2019, the production of synthetic fibers in China reached more than 54 million tons, accounting for 92.8% of the chemical fiber family; In the same period, China's cotton production was 5.9 million tons, and the silk production was only 68,000 tons.

Artificial fiber is a textile fiber which is made of cellulose, protein and other natural polymer compounds as raw materials, which is made into polymer concentrated solution through chemical processing, and then made by spinning and post-processing. Recycled fibers are often referred to as "artificial fibers", and the most common recycled fibers in clothing are viscose fibers (also known as rayon or rayon cotton), Modal fibers, Lyocell fibers (also known as tencel), and so on. Man-made fibers directly use natural polymer compounds, do not consume petroleum resources, and fiber properties are different from chemical synthetic fibers.

A wide selection of chemical fibers

Weaknesses can also be bright spots

The emergence of chemical fibers has greatly enriched the variety and performance of textiles and clothing, and has also given products some functions and characteristics different from natural fiber materials.

For example, the salient feature of polyester is its poor hydrophilicity, which makes polyester fabric easy to dry. Many high-quality quick-drying sports clothing materials are made of ultrafine polyester, ultrafine fiber will accelerate the evaporation of sweat on the fiber surface, keep the surface of the human body in motion dry and comfortable; The fibrillating properties of Lyocell fibers are used to produce fabrics with a peach-skin style.

China is a strong country in chemical fiber production and research and development, and the proportion of chemical fiber production accounts for more than 70% of the world. With the advancement of technology and changes in consumption concepts, chemical fibers are also in the process of continuous improvement, and their "shortcomings" are often made full use of to develop specific products, mainly in the improvement of functionality and comfort. Taking the polyester with the largest output as an example, the structural characteristics of polyester lead to its poor moisture absorption and easy static electricity characteristics, but the R & D personnel start from improving the fiber structure, on the basis of conventional polyester, by modifying the molecular structure, has developed PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) fiber and PTT (polytrimethylterephthalate) fiber. The softness, wear resistance and elasticity of PBT fiber are better than that of conventional polyester fiber, and its dyeing is easier. PTT fiber has better resilience, easy dyeing, high color fastness, and has the advantages of chlorine resistance and UV resistance.

There is also a "cotton-like polyester", which is a polyester with the advantages of cotton fiber, and its hydrophilicity has been significantly improved. The cashmere polyester is a kind of polyester with the characteristics of wool fiber developed by learning from the experience of cotton polyester. Its fineness is close to cashmere, and it has a soft and delicate feel like cashmere and good moisture absorption. Cashmere polyester fiber can be spun pure, or can be blended with other fibers, its price is only 1/3 of natural cashmere fiber.

In addition, researchers have also developed polyester with moisture absorption, fast drying, anti-pilling, antibacterial, anti-ultraviolet, flame retardant and other differential functions, so that it can adapt to consumers' functional needs for clothing.

Natural + chemistry can complement each other

After the characteristics of natural fibers and chemical fibers are fully understood, people often combine the advantages of natural fibers and chemical fibers through blending or interweaving processes in product development, so as to achieve the effect of 1+1 > 2.

The most common example is the polyester/cotton blend fabric, which is usually made of 65% polyester and 35% cotton fiber. The strength, wear resistance and shape retention of polyester-cotton blended fabric are better than those of pure cotton fabric, and at the same time, it has certain moisture absorption and soft feel.

For example: the traditional jeans are made of cotton roving, although the moisture absorption is good, but the lack of elasticity, the close-fitting effect is not good; The high-stretch jeans are made of cotton yarn and spandex yarn, the fabric is full of elasticity, but also more comfortable.

Another example: the fabric of sports socks is usually made of cotton, polyester fiber (polyester), hemp and spandex four kinds of fibers blended. Cotton fiber ensures the skin-friendly and hygroscopic functions of sports socks. Polyester fiber improves the strength and wear resistance of sports socks; Hemp fiber (hemp as a textile fiber is a kind of hemp variety with very low content of cannabinol active ingredient, in our country, sometimes replaced by transliteration of "Hanma" to avoid misunderstanding) has inherent antibacterial properties, providing antibacterial and deodorant functions for sports socks; Spandex provides the elasticity of sports socks, making their heel more snug. Such a pair of sports socks can be described as a combination of four kinds of fiber characteristics, can provide the best experience for the wearer.

Which one to choose? Depends on the scene requirements

According to the requirements of the national mandatory standards, the washing label of textiles and clothing should clearly indicate the material composition of the product. Consumers can directly look at the washed label as a reference in their daily purchase.

In addition, feel and visual inspection are also methods that consumers can use to identify fiber materials. However, this requires consumers to accumulate more experience in their daily lives.

Consumers can also get an understanding of the material of the product by asking the sales staff. The textile and clothing sales staff of regular brands have been trained in professional fiber material knowledge and can provide purchasing advice to consumers. Other fiber identification methods include microscopic observation, combustion, dissolution, etc., but these methods are generally used in laboratory testing, which will cause certain damage to the product and are not suitable for daily purchase.

As the market classification of textile and clothing products becomes more and more detailed, consumers can follow a "scene demand" law in their daily purchase - choose textiles and clothing according to the needs of the use of the scene.

In fact, at the beginning of the design and production of textiles and clothing, R & D and design personnel have fully considered the use scenario of the product when selecting the material of the product: physiological changes and needs of the human body (such as sweating, warm, breathable, waterproof, antibacterial, sunscreen, etc.) and the characteristics of the external environment (such as hot, cold, rain and snow, wind, sun, etc.). For example, summer daily wear generally choose cotton fabrics, silk fabrics, hemp fabrics, etc.; In the case of a large number of exercises, sportswear made of chemical fibers with moisture absorption and quick drying function should be selected; Daily personal clothing can choose cotton fabric and modal fabric, skin friendly good; Outerwear can choose polyester and nylon materials, especially outdoor clothing, the high strength and wear resistance of this kind of chemical fiber can provide a better wearing experience; Bed products and towels of the home textile products have higher requirements for skin affinity and moisture absorption, it is generally recommended that we choose cotton; Quilts a type of home textile products with stuffing, stuffing can choose cotton fiber, wool fiber, high crimp chemical staple fiber, these materials are very prominent in terms of warmth.