Study On The Properties Of The Luffa Sponge-mattress

Plant fiber materials are gradually applied to people's daily lives for its advantages,such as pollution-free and biodegradable.Besides,plant fiber material also has its own physical and chemical characteristics,and the rational use of these features can show the superiority of this material.Now bamboo,palm,jute,straw and other natural plant materials have already been used in mattress designs.Using the above plant fiber materials to make mattress can effectively improve mattress' performance,achieve the sustainable development of renewable energy plants,and create a ecological healthy and comfortable sleep environment.Luffa has a natural criss-crossed three-dimensional reticular fiber,the structure of which is similar to mattress material-sponge,so luffa is also known as luffa sponge.Luffa has good toughness,hydrophobicity and permeability,and in some studies luffa has been used in insole,but few studies use luffa as mattress materials.This paper takes luffa as research material,to study luffa mattress' performance.In this paper,firstly,we took luffa material as study object,by comparative analysis to study the luffa-plant fiber mattress filled microstructure and physical and chemical properties,including the microstructure,crystallinity,thermal properties,chemical composition of the material,providing a scientific basis for process optimization of the filler material and development of functional plant fiber luffa mattress;then we studied the luffa monomer quasi-static compressive mechanical properties,including luffa column quasi-static axial compression test,luffa column,sponge and latex material compression firmness,compressive deformation coefficient,hysteresis loss rate measurement,providing a scientific basis for luffa optimized network processing and mattress support structure optimization;and finally,take the overall mattress sample as our study object,using mattress firmness,hysteresis loss rate and other quantitative data,with comparative analysis of the jute mattress,palm mattresses,3D mattress,to study the mechanical support performance of luffa mattress.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)Microstructure,physical and chemical properties(1)Observations of microstructure and fiber showed that the compaction degree of fiber bundle structure in luffa's every part is smaller than that of jute and palm;Luffa fibers and jute fibers are long,and easy to bend,while palm fibers are short,fusiform-shaped,and difficult to bend;in luffa vascular bundles have spiral vessels which are the main waterorganizations;in addition,the luffa fibers criss-cross,the length and lumen diameter of the fiber on the inner surface is small,mainly playing the luffa longitudinal support role.Thus,luffa's natural fluffy,soft and criss-crossed fibrous structure provides a security guarantee for its being a good mattress filler material,at the same time,spiral vessel' existence provide a guarantee for better breathability and wet conductivity of luffa mattress.(2)XRD pattern showed that the degree of crystallinity of fiber on the inner surface is largest,followed by the outer of surface,interlayer,core.Though degree of crystallinity in every part of luffa is slightly lower than that of jute,it is much higher than that of palm fibers.(3)Holocellulose,?-cellulose content in luffa is only after jute,far higher than the palm.Klason lignin content of luffa and jute were about 12%,while coconut palm's is very high,reaching 37.31%,but coconut palm's acid soluble lignin content is very low,compared to luffa and jute.Klason lignin and lignin sum in every part of luffa follow a law,that is they increase successively from outside to inside.Pentosan content in luffa is very high.Pentosan has oxidative crosslinking properties,and can absorb four times of its own weight of water,which may give a good reason for luffa having a good water absorption.Since luffa absorbs water well,it is often used as toiletries.Luffa material used for mattresses can better absorb body sweat and water on mattress surface to ensure a comfortable sleep environment.(4)Different thermal decomposition temperature of luffa in each section are very close.Only the decomposition temperature within the luffa is slightly higher,which shows the thermal stability within the luffa is the best.Compared with jute and palm,the different decomposition temperature of the three materials is jute>luffa>palm.Therefore,the thermal stability of luffa is higher than palm and lower than jute.(2)Properties of Luffa Monomer(1)Luffa column compressive strength is in 0.01-0.05 Mpa,elastic modulus is in0.1-0.7Mpa;its compressive strength and elastic modulus are in linear correlation with its density,both regression coefficients are above 0.8.And the compressive strength and elastic modulus are increasing with the increase of density.(2)Compared with sponge and latex,luffa's indentation firmness and hysteresis loss rate are larger,but its ability of resistance deformation is relatively smaller.That shows though the luffa filling material is slightly higher in firmness,it possess better lag buffering property which is similar with slow-recovery sponge.Its sense of supporting power has less impact on sleepers.(3)Mechanical supporting property of luffa mattress(1)Luffa mattress' s firmness is less than jute mattress,palm mattress and 3D mattress whether in surface,core or totality.The larger in luffa's compression compaction rater,the larger as the firmness of mattress.Therefore,luffa mattress can solve the problem of more rigid plant fiber mattress.Besides,we can control the firmness of mattress by the luffa material's compression compaction.From that,we can provide consumers with firmness-controlled plant fiber mattress.(2)The hysteresis loss rate in descending order is jute mattress,luffa mattress 1,luffa mattress 2,palm mattress and 3D material mattress.The hysteresis loss rate of mattress can evaluate the energy absorption when the sleepers are turning over in the mattress,action behavior and so on.The hysteresis loss rate of luffa mattress is more than 34%,meaning that luffa mattress possess a better energy absorption characteristic.(3)Lay bedding composition is not the same,there are great difference in luffa mattress' s surface firmness,core layer firmness,bottom firmness and total firmness.That means the lay bedding composition has bigger impact in firmness and softness of luffa mattress.Mattress hysteresis loss rate changed little,about 33%,indicating that the lay bedding composition has less impact on the energy absorption of mattress.(4)With the decrease of the mattress thickness,luffa mattress' s firmness increase.That's meaning the thicker of bedding layer,the softer of luffa mattress.Mattress thickness has greater impact on surface firmness.When the thickness of mattress gets smaller,the impact of bedding layer on surface firmness gets bigger.Mattress thickness has less impact on hysteresis loss rate.When increasing or decreasing the thickness of mattress,it has little impact on hysteresis loss rate.