Fabrics made from straw and chicken feathers

Chicken straws and feathers will appear popular in the costume of the future. It is not a set of feathers or hemp cloth, but chicken or straw hairs are woven into fabrics like wool, linen or cotton.

Researchers hope that inventions using the industry's waste products could reduce the need to use petroleum-based synthetic fabrics such as polyester.

"All these waste will not be wasted anymore," said Yiqi Yang, a fiber researcher at Lincoln University, Nebraska, USA.

Some types of chicken feathers & birds (Photo: cas.psu.edu)

The world currently consumes about 67 million tons of synthetic and natural fibers every year, in clothing, carpets, on vehicles, construction materials and many other application areas.

Before the fact that there is less land for growing cotton or other natural fibers, and oil is increasingly expensive, scientists have realized the potential of millions of tons of available straw and chicken feathers all over the world. It is cheap and easy to decompose (unlike petroleum-based fibers).

In a process that is being considered for patents, Yang and colleagues separated straw fibers with an enzyme and alkaki mixture. Weaving machines will then weave yarn into fabric. This fabric looks superficial and feels like cotton or linen when touched. Production costs about 50 cents per pound, while cotton is currently sold for about 60 cents a pound.

"We are calling on traders to invest in this straw fabric," Yang said.

Chicken feathers are mainly composed of keratin, a compound similar to proteins found in wool. In particular, its hairs and downy hairs cause a feeling on the skin like wool. The researchers studied the properties of these feathers and found that they had a stable honeycomb structure, containing small air pockets, making the hair particularly light and elastic. Thanks to this characteristic, chicken feathers can be a better alternative to wool due to its lower price, much lighter, and good thermal and sound insulation. However, Yang also said that he and his colleagues are not ready to make fibers from these chicken feathers.

(Photo: hareline.com)

T. An