Researchers from MIT have been electrospinning fibres that could be used for protective clothing, drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Electrospinning is a technique that uses an electrical charge to draw a fibre from a liquid polymer and as the jet of fluid polymer sprays out of the bottom of a nozzle, the electric field stretches the fibres to a tiny diameter as small as 10 nanometres.

Textiles made of electrospun fibres can protect against both biological and chemical toxic agents. One of the materials the team have created incorporates chlorhexidine, which can kill most bacteria. Other new materials use oximes - a class of organic compounds that can break down organophosphates which are the basis of many pesticides, insecticides and nerve gases.

Professor Rutledge, who leads the research, is now working on electrospining techniques which could be used to impart colours to fabrics without dye or to create ‘wearable power’

“People are hypothesising almost anything and giving it a try. We’re still trying to figure out which ones are the payoff applications,” said Professor Gregory Rutledge. “There are a lot of ways one can imaginatively think to use some of this stuff.”

By Leila Sattary