Ultrafine Wool and Cotton Powder and Their Characteristics

Micro powders of recycled wool and cotton from textile waste is prepared and characterized. Wool and cotton waste fibers were frozen in liquid nitrogen and milled for various period times to produce fine powders. The powders sizes distribution depends on the milling time. Scanning electron microscopy micrographs confirm that, the fine cotton and wool powders have average size around 60 μm, and that, there are powder particle with size even less than 20 μm. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermal gravimetrical analysis (TGA) results show that as the powder particle size decreases, its thermal stability increases slightly. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and amino acid analysis confirm that, the freeze milling technique is a safe technique to produce ultrafine powder, with no effect on the chemical structure of cotton and wool.