Spectral and Thermal Properties of Biofield Energy Treated Cotton

What is it about?

Cotton has widespread applications in textile industries due its interesting physicochemical properties. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of biofield energy treatment on the spectral, and thermal properties of the cotton. The study was executed in two groups namely control and treated. The control group persisted as untreated, and the treated group received Mr. Trivedi’s biofield energy treatment. The control and treated cotton were characterized by different analytical techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and CHNSO analysis. DSC analysis showed a substantial increase in exothermic temperature peak of the treated cotton (450 ºC) as compared to the control sample (382ºC). Additionally, the enthalpy of fusion (∆H) was significantly increased by 86.47% in treated cotton. The differential thermal analysis (DTA) analysis showed an increase in thermal decomposition temperature of treated cotton (361ºC) as compared to the control sample (358ºC). The result indicated the increase in thermal stability of the treated cotton in comparison with the control. FT-IR analysis showed an alterations in –OH stretching (3408→3430 cm-1), carbonyl stretching peak (1713-1662 cm-1), C-H bending (1460-1431 cm-1), -OH bending (580-529 cm-1) and –OH out of plane bending (580-529 cm-1) of treated cotton with respect to the control sample. CHNSO elemental analysis showed a substantial increase in the nitrogen percentage by 19.16% and 2.27% increase in oxygen in treated cotton as compared to the control. Overall, the result showed significant changes in spectral and thermal properties of biofield energy treated cotton. It is assumed that biofield energy treated cotton might be interesting for textile applications.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Cotton is the most popularly used textile fiber due to its easy availability, low cost as well as good mechanical and physical properties. Cotton is mainly derived from a shrub that is native to tropical and subtropical regions around the word, including Africa, USA, and India [1]. The two main product that are derived from the cotton plant is cotton fiber and cottonseed [2-4]. The main component of cotton is cellulose that is the most abundant natural polymer on Earth [5]. It is the renewable biopolymer of outstanding properties and variety of useful applications [5]. Cotton is mainly used as a material for the manufacture of textile fabrics such as towel, robes, jeans, shirts, etc. Textile industries use the cotton fibers for the production of these materials by weaving and knitting process. Cotton has diverse applications in the medical field ranging from a single-thread suture to the composites for the bone replacement [6]. Cotton-based textiles have been used to prevent the growth of microorganisms [7-8]. Moreover, it was shown that cotton has electric and dielectric behavior. Additionally, cotton based fibers have attracted significant attention as a phase change materials (PCMs) [9]. During early 1980’s under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research program PCMs capsules were embedded in textile structure to improve their thermal performance [10]. It was used as fabric in the astronaut space suite to provide improved thermal protection against the extreme temperature fluctuations in the outer space [10]. Hence, in order to use cotton-based textile for these applications their thermal and physical stability should be improved. Moreover, the chemical processing of cotton is difficult because this natural polymer is not meltable as well as it is insoluble in most of the available solvents due to strong hydrogen bonds and partially crystalline nature [11]. Many research groups in past few decades have devoted significant attention on modification of cotton for various applications. Yin et al. reported the chemical modification of cellulose carbamate using supercritical carbon dioxide and reported that this method has remarkably increased the nitrogen content in the modified polymer [5]. Recently, cotton fabrics were chemically modified with polyamidoamine dendrimer to yield antimicrobial and efficient polymer materials for ink jet printing [12]. Zhao et al. reported the carboxymethylation of cotton and elaborated that their high water absorbency maintains its fabric structure makes them potential candidates for wound therapy. El-gandy et al. modified the cotton fabrics by grafting with acrylic acid, acrylonitrile under gamma radiation treatment [13]. However, all these methods are not cost effective, hence some alternative strategies should be designed which can modify the physical and thermal properties of cotton. Recently, biofield energy treatment was used as an effective approach for modification of physicochemical properties of metal [14], ceramic [15] and polymers [16]. Hence, authors planned to investigate the impact of biofield treatment on spectral and thermal properties of cotton. Energy medicine, energy therapy, and energy healing are the divisions of alternative medicine. It is believed that healers can channel the healing into the patients and confer positive results. Moreover, The National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine/National Institute of Health (NCCAM/NIH), has authorized the use of this therapy in health care sector [17]. Biofield energy therapy is known as a treatment method that embraces an improvement in people’s health and well-being by effectively interrelating with their biofield [18]. It is believed that good health of a human being entirely depends on the perfect balance of bioenergetic fields [19]. Thus, it is envisaged that human beings have the ability to harness the energy from the surrounding environment/Universe and can transmit into any object (living or non-living) around the Globe. The object(s) always receive the energy and responding in a useful manner that is called biofield energy. Mr. Trivedi is a well-known biofield expert who can transform the characteristics in various research fields such as biotechnology [20] and microbiology [21]. This biofield energy treatment is also known as The Trivedi Effect®. Hence, by considering the outcomes of unique Mr. Trivedi’s biofield energy treatment and excellent properties of cotton, this work was embarked on to investigate the impact of this treatment on spectral and thermal properties of cotton.

Perspectives