“Microencapsulation is a process that encloses a product into micro capsules which are deposited on a textile material to progressively be released. The product can be a perfume, an antibacterial agent or a product that can be a anti-cellulite treatment. This technique allows to encapsulate any substance, solid materials or liquids in a membrane that isolates them from the environment and protects. This technique also controls the release of the active ingredient either by rupture of its membrane or by slow and progressive diffusion throughout the membrane. The size of those microcapsules is in the range of 1 to 30 micrometers. In the textile field, this process can entrap any persistent odor or cosmetic to be deposited on the skin. But it can also be bug repellents, color pigments, vitamins, antibacterial agents or phase change materials.”
There are many reasons to use microencapsulation. In certain cases, it will be to isolate a product from its environment in order to protect against oxidation as with vitamins, to slow evaporation in case of volatile solutions, to ease the manipulation of binding materials or to give protection to fragile agents against strong chemicals.In other cases, we would like to control the agent release from its capsule as it would be with pharmaceutical products or pesticides.
Sometimes, microencapsulation will serve to mask odors or will play the complex role of facilitating the selection of an absorbing or an extracting process.The contribution of BERMATEX INNOVATION with its technology is to bring together microencapsulation with traditional textile winding processes. You can picture in the following schematic the concept of application and true results from a filament yarn that has been magnified 1,000 times.
The interesting side about microencapsulation is the need of two fundamental elements: the protective capsule and the active ingredient inside. Not only the properties of the active agent can bring multiple and many desired functionalities but also the capsule has its own behavior. Those capsules can be made out of a porous ceramic which can slowly release a medicament as they do with nicotine patches for example. They can be synthesized with a polyester PLA which will decompose and be absorbed by the living body, freeing up the internal active agent. This is an approach that has been studied to cure some cancers knowing that those microcapsules have tendency to agglomerate on cancerous epithelial cells. In regards to application of cream or perfume into certain textile materials as with pantyhose for example, the capsule will be made out of melamine where it will rupture upon a mechanical action like friction on the garment onto the skin, thus liberating the odorant scent enclosed. Other capsules can break due to an electrical current, by the presence of a specific chemical solution, by heat or simply by water. This is the combination of those two factors, the capsule and the active agent inside, that is creating all those functionalities that could only part of science-fiction in the past.
By functionalities which we can now find in our daily lives, let’s give examples of garments containing enzymes which can clean by themselves, underwear for soldiers that permits to run under a temperature of 45Celsius and which can lower body temperature, curtains containing liquid crystals which change their color according to sunlight and which prevent overheating inside, underwear that contains vitamins C or moisturizing creams for body care, pillows that contain microcapsules filled with cortisone to cure allergies, and so on…
Imagination remains almost the only limit!
