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Naturally sourced elements represent a sustainable alternative solution for the textile finishing industry, in the context of intense use of contamined, fossil-based raw materials. This study focuses on the exploration of an alternative naturally sourced blue colorant matter solution, by validating the possibility of the employment of Spirulina platensis sourced phycocyanin in natural fabrics coloration through the pigment printing technique. The experiments involved the laboratory-scale exploratory studies of the application of this blue colorant matter on cotton and wool textile substrates, using commercial synthetic printing mother paste. The influence of five different mordants(Cream of tartar, Alum, Tartaric acid, Tanic acid and Aluminum triformate), though pre-mordanting treatment and the printing mother paste were analyzed by measuring the chromatic coordinates and calculating the color strength (K/S), together with the measurement of VIS absorbance spectrum. The color characterization revealed good compatibility of wool -phycocyanin – synthetic paste. Results on cotton were not as good as expected. They conclusions evidence reduced affinity between the fibres and the phycocyanin. In terms of color improvements, Tannic acid revealed the most promising results, for both cotton and wool experiments. The validation of the finishing process was obtained through a fair behavior in laundering fastness, showing low response when analyzed against light degrading external factors.

Chitosan is a polysaccharide derived from chitin; chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide in the world, after cellulose. Several remarkable properties of chitosan offered unique opportunities to the development of biomedical and agriculture applications. In addition, chitosan allows obtaining microcapsules with diferrent functionalities according to the core material, but his characteristic allows achieving a control release of the active material. Chitosan microcapsules can be obtained by different encapsulation methods; in this case the extrusion-gelling method has been selected and two kinds of nozzles have been used. The simple nozzle produce a matrix, it can be described as a solid polymer system in which the core material is distributed more or less uniformly throughout the polymer matrix. The concentric nozzle is a standard nozzle configuration to produce core-shell capsules. This study analyses the biodregradability of chitosan microcapsules obtained by co-extrusion/gelling using a single and concentric nozzle, with the aim of defining possible applications in the field of medical textiles.So the weight loss (%) has been calculated in different times, in order to compare the weight loss (%) in each type of microcapsules. The difference in degradation time is due to the quantity of chitosan in the microcapsules. The microcapsules obtained by simple coextrusion contain a greater quantity of polymer than those obtained by concentric extrusion

Cyclodextrins are cyclic oligosaccharides with a special toroid shape, obtained by the action of glucosyltransferase enzyme (CGTase) on starch molecule. Their peculiar structure allows the accommodation of different guest molecules inside their cavity forming molecular inclusion complexes. There are different types depending on the glucose units that are formed, called native. The cyclodextrins can be modified incorporating different groups (hydroxipropyl, methyl...) that changes their properties. Due their versatility in size, properties and the variety of inclusion complex can form is employed in many different industries like pharmacy, food or cosmetics to protect the molecule or to reduce their volatility. As the guest molecule is not bond with the cyclodextrin with the appropriate conditions it can release easily. In textile industry had been use in different areas: to remove surfactants from washed textiles, to substitute surfactants, in the dyeing process, in detergents… Due their capacity to fix onto textile allows the functionalization of the fabrics giving them new properties like UV protection, antimicrobial or insect repellents depending on the guest molecule, in. The project DYES4EVER employs the cyclodextrins to encapsulate dyes not fixed during the dye process that remains in the wastewater and aims to go one step further and reuse the dyes recovered as a raw material in new dyeing processes.

Microencapsulation is a process of entrapment, packaging or immobilizing an active (core) material, which can be in the state of solid, liquid or gas, within a more stable, protective secondary (wall) material that can be released at controlled rates under specific conditions. There are several microencapsulation techniques such as: spray drying, spray cooling/chilling, freeze drying, extrusion, fluidized bed coating, coacervation, liposome entrapment, coextrusion, interfacial polymerization, radical polymerization, molecular inclusion in cyclodextrins, etc. Spray drying has been commonly applied due to their simplicity process, wide availability of equipment facilities, significant merits in terms of reductions in product volume, easy of handling, etc. In the spray drying process the wall materials (shells) and their properties are parameters to be considered to achieve proper encapsulation of the active ingredients (core materials). Some commonly used wall materials and their properties related to spray drying encapsulation, including proteins, carbohydrates, and other materials, or mixtures of some of them. Proper encapsulation of the active ingredient (core) is essential to achieve this active material protecting the outer. The aim of this work is encapsulated an essential oil, sage oil, using two differet wall materials in order to determine which is the best wall material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used in order to know the microcapsules morphology. Core, Shell, Gum Arabic, Alginate, Sage oil, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

Wide varieties of techniques are currently available for encapsulation of active components in food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, textile, etc, industries. Coextrusion and gelling technique is a physical encapsulation technique used for the formation of core-shell liquid filled microcapsules. The general microcapsules morphologies are presented as core-shell spherical microcapsules. There are several parameters to control in the process, and their control is outstanding for the correct microcapsules morphology with proper encapsulation of the active ingredient, these parameters are: frequency, potential, nozzle diameters, encapsulating material concentration, cross-linking concentration, flow rates of encapsulation and active materials, etc. Furthermore shell and core solutions must have viscosity, interfacial tension, density, solubility and thermal properties that must be compatibles with the coextrusion process. The versatility of the systems allows for encapsulation of water- or - oil soluble liquids and slurries. This work is focused on encapsulated an essential oil, rosemary oil, by coextrusion and gelling, therefore is important study and optimize the process parameters, focusing on potential and frequency. A large numbers of experiments have been made in order to know the optimal values, the microcapsules morphology allow us which are the correct values. A stereomicroscope was used as know the microcapsules morphology and determination the correct values.