Recycling of Waste Cotton Textile Containing Elastane Fibers through Dissolution and Regeneration

Increasing utilization of textiles has raised concern regarding the environmental impact brought by the textile manufacturing process and disposal of waste textiles. In our previous work, the dissolution of cotton waste through different solvent systems was demonstrated. Herein, this study aimed to further investigate the recycling of waste cotton–elastane fabrics using H₂SO₄, NaOH/urea, and LiCl/DMAc solvent systems. The structure of regenerated films was characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, and the properties of the regenerated films, including transparency, mechanical properties, water vapor permeability, and thermal stability, were investigated. The results revealed that all solvent systems could convert the waste cotton–elastane fabrics into regenerated films with the existence of different forms of elastane components. The elastane fibers were partially hydrolyzed in H₂SO₄ solvent and reduced the transparency of regenerated films, but they were well retained in NaOH/urea solvent and interrupted the structure of regenerated cellulose films. It is worth noting that the elastane fibers were completely dissolved in LiCl/DMAc solvent and formed a composite structure with cellulose, leading to obviously improved tensile strength (from 51.00 to 121.63 MPa) and water barrier property (from 3.50 × 10⁻⁷ to 1.03 × 10⁻⁷ g m⁻¹ h⁻¹ Pa⁻¹). Therefore, this work demonstrates the possibility to directly recycle waste cotton–elastane fabrics through dissolution and regeneration, and the resultant films have potential applications as packaging materials.