By Sakshi Kapoor

• Fashion Design Faculty

The fantasies of yesterday have become the reality today and the idea of owning a garment that can never get damaged has been brought to life. Scientists around the world are in a constant race to simplify the lifestyle and in an order to do so, a group of researchers from the Pennsylvania state University have developed a bio-degradable liquid that can help torn a fabric to bind itself.

It is analyzed that the natural fibers made up of silk or wool are often used by designers but the textiles are expensive and get wasted even with a slight wear and tear. The clothes hence are not used anymore and the number of bundles for such wasted wardrobes having been rising rapidly. This led to the invention of a technology which makes the textiles to work for longer benefitting the environment and the consumer as well.

The liquid solution used for the mending of textiles is developed using bacteria and yeast. The material to be healed is dipped in the sequence of such liquids to form a polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer coating. During the layering, enzymes can be incorporated into the coating and is designed to breaks urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide — but in commercial use, the coating would be tailored with enzymes matched to the chemical being targeted. This coating is specialized to be thin (less than a micron) so that it is not noticed in everyday usage and will also add further strength to the textiles.

Not just healing but scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are experimenting with the self-replicating properties of E. coli bacteria to develop a type of fabric that can reorganize and heal itself like a living being. This way the cloth will inherently have the ability to self-repair with the application of pressure and water.

Non- commercial advantages may be used by soldiers, medical staff and farmers and will result in the making of a society with less to worry about.