Biotextilogy - Prototyping and testing mechanical gradient textiles that emulate Nature’s own

Biotextilogy describes a patented technology for the design and manufacture of biophysically functional textiles and textile composites that emulate the gradient properties of nature’s own. Biomaterials as diverse as skin and bark exhibit anisotropic and gradient architecture with patterns of structural proteins, e.g. collagen and elastin in skin, that maximize toughness and elasticity while mitigating stress concentrations. This proof of concept study applied biotextilogy to engineer bulk and spatiotemporal gradient properties in textile samples. Textile samples were manufactured from FDA-approved suture materials, using collagen (silk, nylon) and elastin (elastane) analogs. Textiles were woven in orthogonal patterns with different combinations of warp (fibers aligned with tensile loads) and weft (fibers orthogonal to tensile loads). Textile samples were first tested to 120% strain to determine ranges of bulk elastic moduli achievable through weave pattern alone. Then, simple orthogonal patterns were compared to textiles engineered to achieve mechanical stiffness gradients with different spatial orientations. Textiles created using simple orthogonal patterns of fibers exhibited a range of bulk elastic moduli, from 0.85 to 480 ​MPa. Engineered gradient textiles showed significant linear gradients along the width of the sample and more complex relationships for gradients engineered along the length of the sample. Such engineered biotextiles may be advantageous for reducing stiffness mismatch and stress concentrations at interfaces between e.g. medical implants and native tissue, as well as for non-medical applications in the transport and other industries.