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| Nanogold and nanosilver wool in high fashion apparel, textiles and carpets
Gold in its yellow metallic form occupies a premier position in the world economy and society representing an international monetary standard, high value and quality. It is used as an electrical conductor and contact material in the electronics industry and more recently nanogold is finding uses in catalysis and biomedical applications. Silver has a comparable status but below that of gold. It is an excellent electrical conductor and exhibits strong antimicrobial properties which are being utilised in many consumer applications. Fine Merino wool commands a premier position in high quality fabrics, textiles and fashions. We have captured the exciting and unique opportunity whereby the prestige and high value of gold and to a slightly lesser extent silver, are linked directly to high quality wool fibres using proprietary novel nanoscience and technology to produce a new range of nanogold and nanosilver wools for high end fashion apparel, textiles and carpets. Varied hues
When the particle size of gold is reduced to nanosize dimensions of up to a few tens of nanometres, its conventional metallic colour is no longer observed. Rather it exhibits a variety of intense and attractive colours that depend on the size and shape of the nanoparticles and the medium in which they are contained.
This is due to the phenomena of surface plasmon resonance which is the coherent oscillation of conduction band electrons on the gold surface by their resonance interaction of the electromagnetic field of visible light. As a consequence, spherical gold nanoparticles about 10 nm in size are red and as the particle size increases to about 50-70 nm, the colour progressively shifts through the visible spectrum to violet, thereby providing a range of colours. Gold nanorods are typically green and blue depending on the aspect ratio of the nanoparticles. Silver exhibits similar surface plasmon resonance effects with the nanoparticles having a complementary suite of colours and effective antimicrobial properties.
Although the science of surface plasmon resonance was not understood until the German physicist Gustav Mie 1908 solved Maxwell’s equations in 1908 for the absorption and scattering of electromagnetic radiation by very small metallic particles, i.e. nanoparticles, its empirical use dates back many centuries. The remarkable dichroic optical effects observed in the Lycurgus Cup, 4th century AD, are in fact due to the interaction of light with metallic nanoparticles of gold, silver and copper in the glass matrix. In 1857 Michael Faraday recognised that the ruby colour in stained glass windows in cathedrals was due to a colloidal dispersion of gold particles, but at that time was not able to provide a scientific rationale for it.
Adapting science to high fashion
We have recently captured an exciting and proprietary opportunity to use gold and silver nanoparticles as attractive colourants for the high quality fine fibres of merino wool in high end fashion apparel and the coarser crossbred wool fibres in textiles and carpets. Hence the traditional high value and wealth associated with gold and silver is innovatively transferred to high quality wool substrates, thereby offering the fashion and textiles industries with a new and unique product suite based on nanotechnology, which is ideally suited for high quality couture.
The resulting materials comprise of only wool and gold or silver respectively, hence the process has the desirable hallmarks of high quality and environmental attractiveness. The success of this proprietary application required us to develop a fundamental understanding of the chemistry relating to the synthesis and the way gold and silver nanoparticles can be dispersed on and interact with the wool fibre substrate, which being a natural material, is highly variable and chemically complex on both a molecular and nanoscale. Also, the textile and apparel industries are many centuries old and the introduction of nanomaterial colourants with a chemistry that is significantly different from traditional dyes, essentially means that new ideas and technology must be implemented and new investment made. These aspects are being brought together by us and our partners in a synergistic way for the successful development of the new high quality nanogold and nanosilver products for the high end fashion apparel, textiles and carpet markets.
Professor James (Jim) Johnston has a Personal Chair in Chemistry in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New
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