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There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Textiles education : natural fibers -- Textiles education : manmade fibers -- Textiles education : fabric construction -- Textiles education : miscellaneous.

Finer count hemp yarn (<20-50 tex) for apparel and smart textiles applications with a minimum number of imperfections cannot be manufactured using the cotton spinning system due to the presence of non-cellulosic materials in the fiber structure. An investigation has been carried out to identify the spinning properties of hemp fibers including strength, length and length variation, single fiber entity, fineness, bending modulus and softness by removing non-cellulosic materials from hemp. Different chemical and enzyme treatments were employed to improve the selected spinning properties of hemp fiber. It was found that bleaching at 95°C for 240 min (min) after scouring removed the largest amount of non-cellulosic materials. After the carding process, the softness of treated samples, with the highest weight loss (%) was found to be improved by about 2.6 times more than the virgin hemp fiber.

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The practice based research "Skin stories: charting and mapping the skin" deals with issues across the fields of art, design, technology, biology and material science. In an attempt to bridge the gap between aesthetics and technology by investigating the potential of new and industrial materials, the epidermis is used as a metaphor for creating innovative textile surfaces which behave, look or feel like skin. As a result of theoretical enquiry and practical experiments, interactive design solutions have been developed to a prototype stage for possible application in domestic environments and public spaces as well as for integration into body related design concepts. The development of such functional and interactive textile membranes will hopefully enable individuals to experience a polysensual and responsive environment and it is this aspect which is considered to be an original contribution to knowledge in the textiles field. The aim of this written thesis is not only to illustrate the journeys and investigations made along the way and to demonstrate the outcome of the research, but also to situate the practical work in its cultural, critical and technological context. This thesis is accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM which is a visual representation of my 'research map' and holds a record of the practical work carried out during the research project. The ideas of the project "Skin stories: charting and mapping the skin" have been developed and tested during a 3-year research programme towards a Ph. D. at The London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.

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The room temperature morphology of quench-cooled isotactic polypropylene (iPP) films and its development were investigated by scanning transmittance electron microscopy (STEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). STEM dark field images revealed that within an amorphous matrix there exist microcrystalline regions, 160 A in size on the average, having the $ alpha$-monoclinic crystal form. Regions of lower crystalline order were also observed which have an $ alpha$-monoclinic crystal form that has a substantially longer b crystallographic axis. DSC studies indicate that during quench-cooling to the glassy state iPP samples attain a low degree of crystalline order to an extent that depends on sample mass. Upon heating from the glassy state, an exothermic transition is observed following the glass transition temperature which corresponds to the formation of the room temperature morphology. / Cross polarization/magic angle spinning (CP/MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to monitor morphological changes in the purely crystalline phase of quench-cooled iPP films and spunbonded fabrics during annealing. The spectra were obtained using a pulse sequence that incorporates a delay period with a reduced spin locking field prior to cross polarization. Morphological changes occurring within the purely crystalline phase of iPP were related to observations made by DSC. Upon annealing, the CP/MAS NMR spectrum of the purely crystalline phase of both iPP samples changed by a redistribution in the intensity of the various peaks within a given carbon resonance. This redistribution of intensity was found to reflect the conversion from the $ alpha sb1$ to the $ alpha sb2$ monoclinic crystal forms. It is shown that the double melting endotherm observed by DSC for the spunbonded fabrics is due to the exothermicity which is associated with this conversion. It is concentrated in the temperature region between 156 and 163$ sp circ$C. / The tensile properties of the spunbonded iPP fabrics and fibers were enhanced by the dispersion of a silica/silicone additive and by changing the resin characteristics. This additive acts as a nucleating agent for iPP under isothermal crystallization conditions. This nucleating ability manifests itself in smaller crystal sizes and higher nucleation densities in the iPP fibers and bond points. The improved tensile properties are attributed to the smaller crystal sizes which form a more homogeneously dispersed crystalline phase in the amorphous phase as well as to increase the number of load-bearing tie molecules.