Hydrophobization of the Man-Made Cellulosic Fibers by Incorporating Plant-Derived Hydrophobic Compounds

The cellulosic fiber-based sustainable textile industry needs greener alternatives to the existing hydrophobization approaches—which are essentially based on nonrenewable and expensive hydrophobizing agents and adversely impact the environment. Herein, we report the production of novel hydrophobic cellulose based fibers produced by incorporating nature-derived hydrophobic additives—betulin (BE) and betulinic acid (BA) using the Ioncell technology. The incorporation process is simple and does not require any additional step during dry-jet wet spinning. Spinning dopes containing up to 10 wt % BE and BA were spinnable and the spun fibers (10BE and 10BA) maintained their mechanical properties. Compared to BE, BA-incorporated fiber showed homogeneous surface morphology suggesting the increased compatibility of BA with cellulose. Consequently, in contrast to BE-incorporated fibers, BA-incorporated fibers demonstrated higher yarn spinnability. Both 10BE and 10BA fibers showed hydrophobicity (water contact angle >90°) in the produced nonwovens and yarns. In summary, we developed a system for hydrophobizing man-made cellulose fiber via a simple eco-friendly and cost-effective way, which has potential for scalability and industrial applications.