The modern textile industry has experienced tremendous changes and become one of the best premier beneficiaries of advances in nanotechnology. This project is to explore the applications and management of nanotechnology to textile industry. The experimental studies include microwave absorption and magnetic induced heating on polyester textile using three magnetic nanoparticles -- Carbonyl Iron Powder (CIP), Magnetite (Fe3O4) and Ferrofluids. In comparison with the textile without applying magnetic nanoparticle material, these functional textiles show intersecting property of microwave absorption in the particular range of frequency and magnetic induced heating. I call these two promising textiles -- Microwave-Absorption Textile (MAT) and Magnetic Heated Textile (MHT).
Despite I have achieved significant and interesting results on MAT and MHT, there is plenty of work to be done not only in the development but also in the commercialization of the textiles. Thus, the public health and environmental safety become extremely important because there are a large number of imitators in the target market-China, and their lack of full knowledge, skills and understanding of the particular nanomaterials and nanoprocesses may result in the flood of counterfeit and poor-quality products in Chinese market which may endanger both public health and environmental safety. In order to minimize and manage the health and safety risks, I implement risk management for nanotechnology using two models -- National Innovation System (NIS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and significant findings are obtained. First, I find that a NIS can help nanotechnology manage health and safety risks in the development and commercialization of products with three stages: innovation inputs, innovation process and innovation outputs. Second, I find that IPR can be a good model for risk management, with which the risks associated with public health and environmental safety can be controlled, and those people or organizations that use our products without authorisation can be detected, and the violations of property rights and illegal imitations can be prevented.
Chapter 1 introduces nanotechnology, risk management and the functional textiles. Chapter 2 reviews literature on the applications of functional textile using nanotechnology and the applications of nanofinishing and nanocoating. Chapter 3 introduces risk management principles and models, and I put the context in China which is the top player in the textile industries around the globe. Chapter 4 discusses the experimental work with the results from MAT and MHT. In Chapter 5 I apply the NIS and IPR models and discuss how to manage the risks associated with public health and environmental safety. Chapter 6 concludes and makes recommendations for future research.
