Tetrapodal textured Janus textiles for accessible menstrual health

Sarah L Sanders; Lacey D Douglas; Tiffany E Sill; Kaylyn Stewart; Noah Pieniazek; Chenxuan Li; Eve Walters; Mohammed Al-Hashimi; Lei Fang; Rachel D Davidson; Sarbajit Banerjee

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108224

Tetrapodal textured Janus textiles for accessible menstrual health

iScience. 2023 Nov 3;26(11):108224. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108224. eCollection 2023 Nov 17.

Authors

Sarah L Sanders^{1

2}, Lacey D Douglas^{1

2}, Tiffany E Sill^{1

2}, Kaylyn Stewart^{1

2}, Noah Pieniazek^{1

2}, Chenxuan Li¹, Eve Walters^{1

2}, Mohammed Al-Hashimi³, Lei Fang¹, Rachel D Davidson^{1

2}, Sarbajit Banerjee^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77842-3012, USA.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3003, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha 23874, Qatar.

Abstract

Menstruating individuals without access to adequate hygiene products often improvise with alternatives that pose health risks and limit their participation in society. We describe here a menstrual hygiene product based on low-cost materials, which are integrated onto fabrics to imbue unidirectional permeability. A body-facing "Janus" fabric top layer comprising ZnO tetrapods spray-coated onto polyester mosquito netting imparts hierarchical texturation, augmenting the micron-scale texturation derived from the weave of the underlying fabric. The asymmetric coating establishes a gradient in wettability, which underpins flash spreading and unidirectional permeability. The hygiene product accommodates a variety of absorptive media, which are sandwiched between the Janus layer and a second outward-facing coated densely woven fabric. An assembled prototype demonstrates outstanding ability to wick saline solutions and a menstrual fluid simulant while outperforming a variety of commercially alternatives. The results demonstrate a versatile menstrual health product that provides a combination of dryness, discretion, washability, and safety.

Keywords: Materials chemistry; Materials science; Materials synthesis.