Current insect repellent treatments for fibers, fabrics, and garments suffer from reduced lifecycles with repeated laundering and, depending on the insecticide, potential irritation or toxicity. Encapsulation of insect repellent (i.e. picaridin) into textile fibers via a bottom-up approach is presented, showing potential to create fabrics and garments that exhibit similar feel of existing fabrics, while also exhibiting durable insect repellency. Coaxial electrospinning was employed to afford the ability to create hierarchically-structured functional micro- to nano-scale fibers by controlling the composition of specific areas of the fiber (core vs. surface). Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that incorporation of each of the repellents had minimal effect on fiber morphology and spinnability, even at extremely high loadings, indicating a facile method for generating defect-free, repellent fibers that can be tuned through traditional electrospinning methods (<i>i.e.</i> electric-field, die-to-collector distance, etc.). In addition, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to investigate the release of DEET and picaridin at slightly elevated temperatures for both coaxial and monofilament fibers and it is shown that a coaxial morphology is more effective at protecting the repellent-rich core by limiting small-molecule diffusion. Through variation of the composition of the repellent fibers, we have demonstrated tunable release profiles of each repellent by controlling both time and temperature. Complimentary FTIR and 2-D Raman spectroscopy were also performed to investigate polymer/repellent interactions.<br/>

Electrospun coaxial nylon fibers for controlled insect repellent release

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.