Abstract

Characterization of PETfibers incorporated with bacteria spores

Author(s): LucyWanjiru Ciera, Fredrick NziokaMutua, NaomiWangari Njuguna, EdisonOmollo

The demand for high-tech textiles with special functionalities is currently increasing. This has led to the continuous effort to modify conventional polymeric textile materials like Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Previous studies have proved that bacteria spores can be incorporated in PET fibers during melt extrusion. However, the effects of extruding spores in the fibers on the resulting fiber‘s tensile properties have not been studied deeply. In this work, tensile tester, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy (OM) were used to characterize the properties of PET/spores fibers. Results indicated that tensile strength, Young’s modulus and elongation at break were dependent on spore concentration. Nevertheless, the properties of the resulting fibers were found to be as of same tensile quality as normal PET fibers.