An old pair of jeans can still be used like this!

Circular economy is one of the common terms used in the textile and garment industry. Recycling and reuse are the common challenges and issues facing various textiles. With population growth and the development of third world countries coupled with today's fast-changing fashion cycle, textile waste is always increasing, causing millions of tons of clothing and other textiles to be burned or dumped in landfills. Textile waste is a global challenge that has a major impact on environmental governance.

Deakin's research team spent more than four years researching a viable textile recycling solution to solve this problem. They feed into the waste denim for an artificial joint cartilage remodeling. They have developed a way to dissolve the cowboy and turn the rest into an aerogel.

Professor Byrne, who completed the study, said the method is practical because denim is made from cotton, which is a natural cellulose fiber that is a versatile renewable material. Therefore, we can use solvents to dissolve the denim and regenerate it in aerogel or other forms.

Aerogels are a class of materials with very low density, sometimes referred to as "frozen smoke" or "solid smoke", which exhibit excellent performance in bioscaffold materials, filter materials, and adsorbent materials due to their extremely low density. Improvements in cellulose fibers have yielded unexpected results - an aerogel material with a porous structure and nanochannels.

Professor Byrne said she believes that the viscosity of denim cellulose solutions may be responsible for the unique aerogel structure that is well suited for use as synthetic cartilage. Moreover, it is similar to the cartilage morphological structure and is a material that cannot be printed by 3D printing technology. Now we can control the size and distribution of the nano-tunnel to achieve the desired shape of the aerogel.

Professor Wren Greene of IFM has helped test the suitability of the aerogel material as a cartilage-like bioscaffold. He said that the pore network structure of these aerogels and cartilage tissue has significant similarities, even in the size, orientation and orientation of the pore channels. The density distribution is very similar, and it is these characteristics that enable the aerogel material to replicate the body's lubrication mechanism and protect the cartilage from wear.

The biggest drawback to the recycling of used textiles is that no matter what advanced technology, chemicals are needed to reduce cost-effectiveness. The team used an upgrade and reengineering approach to address cost-benefit issues. Use environmentally friendly chemicals and create more advanced materials by improving techniques and methods. Professor Byrne said: "We are currently conducting pilot-scale trials and hope to achieve industry-supported commercial scale within three to five years."