As we all know, traditional natural textile fibers include cotton and bast fibers, while animal fibers consist of wool and silk—humans have a long history of using these fibers. With the development of science and technology, the integration between emerging disciplines such as bioengineering, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology and textile science & technology has been deepening. In the field of natural fibers, experts have continuously adopted advanced physical, chemical, and biological technologies to modify existing fibers or develop new types of natural textile fibers, while giving full play to their inherent advantages. These efforts aim to meet people’s demands for comfort, aesthetics, safety, and environmental friendliness in textile materials. This article discusses the properties and applications of newly developed and used natural fibers.
New Plant Fibers
Natural Colored Cotton Fiber
Natural colored cotton fiber is produced by transplanting colored cotton genes into the DNA of conventional cotton through genetic modification technology, resulting in inherently colored cotton fibers. Textiles made from colored cotton do not require bleaching or dyeing, aligning with people’s pursuit of ecological color diversity and the trend of environmental protection and returning to nature. Compared with white cotton, colored cotton has lower yield and inferior quality—its fibers are shorter, weaker, have lower micronaire value, poor uniformity, and higher short fiber content. However, natural colored cotton textiles offer excellent wearing performance: they are soft, elastic, comfortable, and safe, making them suitable for undergarments, T-shirts, shirts, infant clothing, towels, and bedding that come into direct contact with the skin.
Hemp Fiber
Hemp, also known as Chinese hemp or industrial hemp, is one of the earliest textile fibers cultivated in China for clothing and warmth. Hemp is rarely affected by pests during growth and storage. Its fiber cross-section is irregularly round or polygonal with a rough surface, featuring numerous longitudinal cracks and pores connected to the lumen. As a result, hemp fiber exhibits high absorbency, moisture wicking, and moisture permeability—Hemp Fabrics are comfortable and breathable to wear. Individual hemp fibers are extremely fine, giving textiles a smooth and soft hand feel without the typical prickliness or roughness of other bast fiber fabrics, even without special treatment. Additionally, hemp textiles have significant antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida, and other microorganisms. For a long time, the difficulty in hemp spinning lay in the underdeveloped degumming process for pre-treatment, which led to poor fiber uniformity and weak cohesion between bundle fibers. Since the breakthrough in hemp degumming technology in the 1980s, hemp has become an important natural textile raw material. Reports indicate that domestic hemp/cotton/colored cotton blended casual fabrics, leveraging hemp’s unique properties, have gained popularity for their soft texture, elegant colors, and rugged style. Hemp blends well with other textile fibers—hemp/wool blends are moth-resistant. With inherent health benefits, hemp textiles are suitable for socks, insoles, undergarments, and bedding.
Apocynum Fiber
Apocynum, also known as wild hemp or tea flower, is a wild plant fiber that shares the advantages of bast fibers (good moisture absorption, breathability, and high strength). It is also soft, smooth, and silk-like, making it suitable for high-end textiles. The fiber cross-section is round or oval with longitudinal stripes and transverse nodes; its length ranges from 15 to 70mm, fineness from 17 to 23μm, breaking strength from 7.0 to 7.9cN/dtex, and breaking elongation from 3% to 4%.
Modern scientific experiments have found that apocynum fiber is rich in various medicinal components, similar to its leaves and flowers, and possesses natural far-infrared and antibacterial properties. Wearing apocynum fiber products can enhance human immunity. Therefore, developing medical and health-care clothing, bedding, and other products using this fiber can increase product added value. Due to its short and thick nature, apocynum fiber must be processed into technical fibers for spinning. Its smooth, non-crimped surface results in weak cohesion and low elongation, so it is often blended with cotton, Tencel, or other fibers to produce high-end textiles. Japan is the largest consumer market for apocynum textiles. Some domestic colored cotton companies have developed apocynum/colored cotton blended fabrics. In recent years, apocynum textiles have been developing toward multi-functional composite health-care products.
Bamboo Fiber (Natural Bamboo Fiber)
Bamboo fiber refers to fibers directly extracted from bamboo through mechanical and physical methods, retaining bamboo’s inherent properties with sufficient fineness, length, and strength to meet spinning requirements. Individual bamboo fibers are very short (only about 2mm), so they must be processed into technical fibers for spinning. The current degumming process draws on ramie degumming technology, with the removal of lignin being the biggest challenge—resulting technical fibers are relatively thick and hard with residual lignin. Natural bamboo fiber is fundamentally different from bamboo pulp viscose fiber: the former is a pure natural fiber with a unique style, excellent wearing performance, and health benefits (named “natural bamboo fiber” to distinguish it from bamboo pulp viscose), while the latter is a regenerated cellulose fiber. Some antibacterial components in bamboo are damaged during chemical processing of bamboo pulp viscose, and the associated chemical pollution means it is not a truly environmentally friendly fiber.
The main chemical components of natural bamboo fiber are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, accounting for over 90% of the fiber’s dry weight, followed by protein, fat, pectin, tannins, pigments, and ash. Scanning electron microscopy shows that natural bamboo fiber has transverse nodes, uneven thickness distribution, and micro-grooves on the surface. Its cross-section is irregularly oval or kidney-shaped with a lumen, covered with large and small gaps and edge cracks—similar to ramie fiber. These gaps, grooves, and cracks act like capillaries, enabling instant moisture absorption and evaporation, earning it the title of “breathable fiber.” Fabrics and garments made from natural bamboo fiber are highly moisture-absorbent, breathable, and cool to wear. They also exhibit strong, natural, long-lasting antibacterial and bactericidal properties, as well as environmental friendliness and health benefits. Due to the presence of sodium copper chlorophyllin, natural bamboo fiber has excellent deodorizing and UV-resistant effects. Experiments show that bamboo fiber fabrics can deodorize ammonia by 70%-72% and acid odor by 93%-95%.
With its excellent wearing performance and health benefits, natural bamboo fiber can be developed into hygienic, medical, and other functional products, as well as bedding. Yarn made from this raw material is soft yet slightly structured, with a crisp and smooth hand feel that does not cling to the skin. Its superior moisture absorption and breathability make it an ideal material for summer and autumn clothing.
The development and application of bamboo fiber are still in the initial stage. Limitations such as low dye uptake, high lignin and pectin content, and poor elasticity restrict its product applications. Further basic research on natural bamboo fiber is needed to provide theoretical guidance for the development and production of textile products that truly reflect bamboo’s excellent properties and style. Bamboo pulp viscose fiber also faces issues such as low wet strength, brittleness, and limited specifications/varieties, which hinder end-product development. Therefore, strengthening research on the development and application of bamboo fiber—especially natural bamboo fiber—can reduce reliance on petroleum-based textile raw materials, lower energy consumption and environmental pollution, and promote sustainable development.
Mulberry Bark Fiber
Mulberry bark fiber is extracted from pruned mulberry branches through degumming treatment. Domestic reports on mulberry bark fiber extraction first emerged in the 1990s, with Yin Lide, Shen Yi, and others patenting the extraction process in 1995. The extraction steps include peeling, chemical boiling, mechanical extraction, rinsing, acid washing, softening, drying, and carding. The final mulberry bark fiber has an average length of 31.50mm and a breaking strength of 5.30cN/dtex—performance superior to or similar to cotton fiber, with a silk-like luster. Individual mulberry bark fibers are short, so technical fibers are used for spinning. The technical fibers have a length of 27-39mm, linear density of 3.25-4tex, breaking strength of 15-29cN/tex, and breaking elongation of 4%-12%.
Mulberry bark fiber has a lower cellulose content than sisal, hemp, jute, and pineapple leaf fiber, but a much higher pectin content than other bast fibers. Its degumming and fiber production processes can reference hemp processing, including chemical degumming, bio-enzyme degumming, and combined bio-chemical degumming. The preparation process is as follows: mulberry bark cleaning → soaking → hammer washing → alkali boiling → water rinsing → bleaching → acid washing → water rinsing → drying → oiling → spin-drying → drying → pre-opening → opening.
China is rich in mulberry resources. Extracting mulberry bark fiber from pruned branches can increase the output value of the sericulture industry and enrich the variety of bast fibers, bringing significant social and economic benefits.
New Animal Fibers
Stretched and Refined Wool
Wool treated with stretching and refining processes becomes finer and longer, with a silky luster and soft hand feel—greatly increasing its value and enabling the production of high-end, lightweight products.
In the early days, fine wool was mainly obtained by breeding fine-wool sheep and increasing their population and individual yield. However, this method of wool refinement was slow and only increased the production of wool with a fineness of 18-20μm. A more effective method is artificial stretching and refinement of fibers. Represented by research from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), this technology includes a series of patented processes such as fiber pre-treatment, mechanical stretching, and chemical setting to refine wool fibers in slivers, producing “Optim” combed slivers. Two types of fibers can be obtained: “Optim Fine” (fineness reduced by 3-4μm), suitable for producing lightweight fabrics with a silk-like luster, soft hand feel, and excellent drape; and “Optim Max” (length shortened by 20%-25% after shrinkage), which when blended with ordinary wool, creates lightweight knitted fabrics with enhanced bulkiness. Stretched wool exhibits a silk-like luster but reduced breaking elongation. During production, penetrants and temperature control are used to ensure sufficient fiber swelling and elongation. Domestic research on wool stretching technology and theory is conducted by Donghua University and Tianjin Polytechnic University, with a basic process of pre-treatment → stretching → setting → drying.
Shrink-Resistant Wool (Mercerized Wool)
Wool offers excellent wearing performance, but the directional arrangement of its scales and high fiber elasticity lead to felting shrinkage. This makes wool clothing difficult to maintain, as felting can cause dimensional shrinkage and affect product style. Therefore, modifying wool to produce low-felting or non-felting wool is an important area of wool modification.
Shrink-resistant wool undergoes special treatment to either partially or fully etch the surface scales or coat the wool with resin, reducing fiber-to-fiber friction to achieve shrink resistance. Scale reduction treatment mainly includes two methods: oxidation and protease etching. Additionally, reduction treatment can refine wool. Chlorine oxidation is a commonly used method—chlorine-containing oxidants are used to oxidize slivers, decomposing the outer protein of scales into peptides or hydrolyzed amino acids, thereby partially or fully etching the scale layer. Protease treatment has not yet formed an independent and complete process system and is mainly used in combination with chemical methods or plasma treatment to moderately remove wool surface scales and improve shrink resistance. Mercerizing wool with protease or plasma is environmentally friendly and should be promoted. Mercerized wool is commonly used in wool knitted products and worsted fabrics.
Natural Colored Silk
Natural colored silk is produced by introducing colored cocoon genes into silkworms through biological gene recombination technology, combined with modern breeding techniques such as hybrid combination and directional selection. Reports indicate that the Key Laboratory of Sericulture Science at Southwest University has bred over 40 practical varieties of naturally colored cocoons (red, yellow, blue, pink, etc.) based on silkworm genome research and promoted them in regions such as Fuling. However, the main component of colored cocoons is protein, which is prone to oxidation and fading during reeling. The Key Laboratory of Sericulture Science at Southwest University has developed a “natural color fixation technology for cocoons” by improving varieties and constructing new vectors, solving the problem of oxidation fading during reeling. Like natural colored cotton, garments and products made from natural colored silk are healthy, environmentally friendly, and non-fading—making it a natural green fiber with broad market prospects. It is particularly suitable for undergarments, dresses, outerwear, ties, scarves, and other fashion items.
Spider Silk Fiber
Spider silk is characterized by high strength and excellent elasticity, resembling high-strength synthetic fiber Kevlar 1414 and elastic fiber spandex. In terms of strength, orb-weaver silk even outperforms high-performance Kevlar—while both have similar high strength, Kevlar can only extend by 4% of its original length before breaking, compared to 30% for spider silk.
DuPont has conducted research in this field for many years. They implanted spider silk genes into yeast and bacteria to produce spider silk protein replicas with the same structure as natural spider silk protein. Researchers dissolved this protein in a chemical solvent and extruded the solution through small holes via wet spinning to produce strong fibers. The goal of laboratory-produced spider silk research is to obtain bio-fibers identical to natural spider silk. These lightweight, high-strength, and elastic bio-fibers have numerous potential applications, including national defense, aerospace (e.g., lightweight bulletproof vests, helmets, parachute ropes), bridge construction, composite materials, and biomedicine.
Conclusion
The application of new textile materials has injected vitality into the traditional textile industry. Coupled with the advancement of textile mechatronics, intelligence, and new production processes, this ancient industry has been revitalized and reimagined. The continuous development and use of new natural fibers not only conserve petroleum and other energy sources but also reduce environmental pollution. Natural fibers are skin-friendly, and some possess medical and health-care properties. As people’s pursuit of nature and a return to simplicity grows, increasing the development and utilization of natural fibers will unlock broader market prospects.
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