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Plastic products are a significant component of the manufacturing industry and the plastic industry is closely related to economic and social development. As constraints from resources and environment tighten, rational disposal and utilization of waste plastics becomes crucial for the sustainable economic and environmental development. Currently, the variety of plastic products becomes abundant, and disposal technologies and application challenges are constantly updated. Considering the demand for highquality development of the industry and increasingly strict environmental protection requirements, a systematic analysis of the research progress of waste plastic disposal and utilization becomes urgent. In this study, the waste plastic disposal and utilization technologies are categorized into mechanical disposal of waste plastics, energy and resource conversion, regeneration recycling, and new technologies for disposal and utilization. These four types of technologies are expounded from the aspects of technical features, applicable conditions, and research progress. On the basis, facing the technical challenges and referring to the existing experience of developed countries, suggestions are proposed from the aspects of source reduction, sorted recycling of waste plastics, and technological innovation and transformation, hoping to provide a reference for the clean disposal and recycling of waste plastics in China.

In this study, we developed a submicron PAN fiber/cotton fiber composite yarn, dyed it using the same dye process as pure cotton yarns of the same size specifications, and compared it to pure cotton yarns dyed using the same dye process to determine how the yarns responded to dyeing. A comparison of dyed yarns has been made in terms of their shapes, shades, colorfastness, strength, evenness, hairiness, neps, and other characteristics, which are the main characteristics of dyed yarns. Results showed that the evenness and lack of neps of submicron PAN fiber/cotton fiber composite yarn were superior to those of pure cotton yarn; the composite yarn also showed improved stability, uniformity, and durability properties over pure cotton yarn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enormous volume of water is stored in the Earth's atmosphere, considered a grossly underestimated source of fresh water. Extracting water from the air with sorbents is a booming technology to utilize this ubiquitous water resource for alleviating the global water shortage. The efficiency of sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) is mainly determined by the water sorption performances of sorbents and the daily water output of production devices. This review emphatically discusses recent progress on water vapor sorbents and water production devices, including the water vapor sorption mechanisms and the design principles of devices. We propose that SAWH will develop further towards flexibility, continuity, high productivity, and especially convenience wherever and whenever possible with minimal climatic and geographical constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new kind of functional fiber, hollow coffee carbon polyester (HCCP) has the advantages of antibacterial and warmth retention properties. HCCP's wear-ability performances in knitted textiles were studied by changing the specifications of the raw materials, blending ratios and knitted structures. Plain knit, interlock knit and Ponte knit fabrics were prepared with compact siro-spun HCCP/cotton yarns in five different blended ratios. Eight groups of experiments were conducted to test the performances of the mechanical properties, comfortable capability and antibacterial behavior. Then a comprehensive wear-ability evaluation was made based on the grey clustering analysis method. Results revealed that fabrics with a higher blended ratio of HCCP showed more preferred performance in terms of bursting strength, air permeability, moisture absorption, warmth preservation and antibacterial property, but the anti-pilling performance showed a downward trend. Compared to plain stitch, the interlock knit and Ponte knit fabrics showed a visibly better result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric pollution has emerged as causing irreversible harm to the ecosystem and people. Sub-micron fibrous filters play an incomparable role in effective air purification, owing to their excellent internal connectivity. Herein, three-dimensional sub-micron fibrous webs with various aligned degrees were conveniently fabricated via free surface electrospinning with different rotation speeds of the roller with a large diameter in large quantity, applied in air filtration. The influence of the orientation degrees of fibers on the performances of the fibrous filter was analyzed systematically. Results showed that the filtration performance of fibrous filters was inversely proportional to the orientation degree of the sub-micron fibers. Random fibrous webs with areal densities of ≤2.0 g m−2 exhibited high porosity (∼90%), ensuring qualified air permeability and outstanding filtration efficiency from 92% to 99.5% for ultra-fine aerosol particles (∼0.26 µm) under a higher air velocity of 14.1 cm s−1. The internal aperture channels were twists and turns with irregular polygon shape for random fibrous webs, while they were a narrow strip in the horizontal and straight in the longitudinal for aligned ones, which influenced the filter's performances. Fibrous webs with better orientation of fibers and larger pore size are beneficial for energy efficiency and exhibited good filtration performance, better air permeability, and an improved mechanical property along the longitudinal direction. A cost-effective uniform sub-micron fibrous filter with different aligned degrees could be produced rapidly via free surface electrospinning with a mass production rate, which is beneficial for industrial production and commercial applications in respiratory protection and indoor air purification for precise purification of air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]