Effect of Chemical Treatments on the Properties of High-Density Luffa Mattress Filling Materials

Abstract

Luffa is a lightweight porous material with excellent biocompatibility and abundant resources. In this paper, three kinds of softening treatment methods, alkali-hydrogen peroxide (Method 1), alkali-acetic acid (Method 2), and alkali-urea (Method 3), were used to soften high-density (HD) cylindrical luffa (CL) mattress-filling materials (MFM). Microscopic observation, mechanical performance testing and other analyses were performed to evaluate the effects of the three kinds of softening methods on the wettability, compression resilience and support performance of CL MFM. The results showed that: (1) After the treatment by Method 1, Method 2 and Method 3, the peak stress of CL decreased by 73%, 10% and 27%, respectively. In addition, after three kinds of softening treatments, the uniformity of CL increased. (2) When the CL MFM of high density rank treated by Method 1 was compressed by 40%, the firmness values of the surface, core and bottom reduced by 53.49% 40.72%, and 46.17%, respectively, compared to that of untreated CL. In addition, for the CL MFM of high density rank treated by Method 3 and then compressed to 60%, the firmness of the surface layer, core layer and bottom layer reduced by 41.2%, 33.7%, and 36.9%, respectively. (3) The contact angle of luffa treated by Method 3 was the smallest, next came Method 1 and Method 2, and untreated was the largest. (4) After the treatment by Method 3, the fiber bundle of luffa was intact, and the compression resilience of the CL was obviously increased. Therefore, this method can effectively reduce the firmness of MFM and also improve the uniformity and wettability of CL.