Researchers have recycled clothing waste into an “aerogel” supermaterial that can help stop wound bleeding

Cotton-based fabric waste has a multitude of uses that range from being recycled into polishing and wiper clothes to automotive insulation. Though, as researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered and demonstrated, this type of waste could be turned into cotton aerogels that have their own practical applications.

The cotton aerogels, which are comprised of cotton and cellulose and coated with chitosan, are a marked improvement over the paper waste aerogels that the team had previously worked on. According to Dr. Hai Minh Duong, an associate professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the cotton aerogels possess various desirable qualities such as being ultralight, highly compressible, and stronger. All these properties combined make them more suitable to mass production.