"Sutures made from nanofibre could be made of a material that dissolves into the skin with slow-release drugs that can help heal the wounds and prevent infection."
Ian Hosie, technical director at Revolution Fibres, says nanofibre textiles are part of a new wave of "advanced materials" developed for various functions. The company is one of the world's leading producers of nanofibre, known as one of the most efficient and innovative in the field, developing products such as air filters, facemasks and home ventilation filters, cosmetic and natural health products, carbon fibre reinforcement products and more.
Manufacturing limitations have largely curtailed the mass production of nanotextiles; nanofibre yarn would allow them to be created in much larger quantities. Al-Hilali's work is focusing on techniques allowing such fibres to be spun into a yarn to be incorporated into machinery already in use across industries.
"His work has the potential to open up many more product applications, such as wearable electronics and medical products," says Hosie.
Al-Hilali started working with textiles at the start of his Masters degree at AUT earlier this year. He was tasked with analysing potential uses for polyester, quickly discovering some interesting and unusual applications.
"I investigated uses for the different components of the textile," he says. "For example, some of its components can be used to conduct electricity."
His work with polyester brought him to the attention of the people at Colab, AUT's collaborative research facility for design and creative technologies.
"My supervisor Dr Andrew Lowe was directly involved with Colab and they were really interested in what I was doing," he says.
After attracting the attention of Colab he was offered an internship at Revolution Fibres earlier this year.
Hosie says the company started discussions with AUT last year when looking for a talented student to help develop a nanofibre yarn: "Callaghan Innovation funding was used to attract a student to prove the underlying concepts between electrospinning [nanofibre production] and yarning," he explains. "Yasir proved to have a good combination of technical and mechanical engineering skills and was recommended by AUT."
Next year will see Al-Hilali spending 50 per cent of his time developing nanofibre yarns at Revolution Fibres while completing the theoretical components of his master's degree.
The addition of an easy-to-use microfibre yarn to the company's arsenal of products will see its appeal broaden to an even wider international audience and lead to future innovations and cutting-edge products.
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