Umit Koc

The increasing generation of textile waste and the growing demand for sustainable materials have made the development of polymer composites reinforced with reused post‐consumer textiles an important research area in recent years. In this study, sustainable thermoplastic textile composites reinforced with polylactic acid (PLA)/reused post‐consumer denim fabric (RDF) and polypropylene (PP)/reused post‐consumer denim fabric (RDF) were fabricated and characterized. Composite laminates were produced using the hot‐pressing (compression molding) method, an industrially applicable and scalable manufacturing technique, without the use of chemical surface treatments or compatibilizer additives. The effects of matrix polymer selection and textile reinforcement architecture on the mechanical performance and environmental durability of the composites were systematically investigated through tensile, flexural, impact, and moisture absorption tests. The results revealed that PLA/RDF composites exhibited higher stiffness, with an elastic modulus of approximately 8.63 GPa, but displayed more brittle mechanical behavior. In contrast, PP/RDF composites exhibited higher tensile strength (33.9 MPa) and significantly greater ductility. Charpy impact tests showed that PLA/RDF composites exhibited a higher average impact energy (0.8513 J) than PP/RDF composites (0.7032 J). Moisture absorption tests demonstrated that both composite systems exhibited significant hydrophilic behavior, with a mass increase of approximately 12%–15% after 3 weeks. These findings highlight the potential of reused post‐consumer denim fabric as a sustainable reinforcement material for the development of scalable thermoplastic composite structures with enhanced mechanical performance and environmental durability.

Advanced composite materials have become the leading material platform for high‐performance sports equipment, enabling superior strength‐to‐weight performance, stiffness tailoring, and enhanced functional integration compared with conventional materials. This review summarizes state‐of‐the‐art developments across multiple sporting disciplines, focusing on recent innovations in fiber reinforcements, matrix chemistries, hybrid architectures, and advanced manufacturing routes. Key material advances include nano‐enhanced carbon fibers, spread‐tow fabric concepts that improve laminate uniformity and surface quality, and the growing use of natural‐fiber composites to support sustainability goals while maintaining adequate mechanical efficiency for targeted components. On the manufacturing side, automated fiber placement, additive manufacturing of continuous‐fiber composites, and resin transfer molding (RTM) variants are examined as enabling technologies for precision lay‐up control, geometric complexity, repeatability, and scalable production. Application‐driven progress in cycling, racket sports, golf, water sports, and winter sports is discussed through the perspective of performance enhancement, weight minimization, durability, and regulatory constraints. Emerging research directions—bio‐inspired structural concepts, smart composites with embedded sensing, and circular‐economy strategies—are critically assessed in relation to environmental impact and end‐of‐life challenges. The review also highlights the accelerating role of computational design and optimization tools, including topology optimization, multiscale modeling, and machine learning, in shortening development cycles and guiding material/process selection. Performance validation is addressed by integrating mechanical characterization, sport‐specific testing protocols, and nondestructive evaluation approaches to ensure reliability and safety. This synthesis outlines current capabilities, identifies key research gaps, and provides future recommendations toward sustainable, adaptive, and biomimetic composite systems for next‐generation sports equipment.

The present paper reports a research for the preparation of the highly stretchable fabric-reinforced composite with enhanced mechanical properties. Removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution was studied using Cotton-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers woven fabric reinforced hydrogel composite with enhanced mechanical stability. The composite hydrogel comprised tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the crosslinking agent. The morphology and properties of PVA/Cotton fabric reinforced hydrogel composites were characterized through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Moreover, the electrochemical measurements of the MB were investigated using the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method, and the interaction between MB and TEOS-treated PVA/Cotton fabric was investigated using ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy. Through this study, compared with the neat PVA/Cotton fabric breaking force in warp direction (664.74 N), increasing the TEOS ratio from 3% vol. to 100% vol. caused breaking force to increase properly to 22.37, 29.29, 64.04 and 72.27 N, respectively. The breaking force in weft direction decreased from 181.03 N (3% vol. TEOS concentration) to 138.77 N (10% vol. TEOS concentration) while it gradually increased from 225.65 (30% vol.) to 236.88 N (100% vol.). It can be concluded that PVA/Cotton fabric reinforced hydrogel composites with improved mechanical stability could be used as a potential adsorbent material to remove the MB dye from an aqueous solution.

This study evaluates the effects of different aqueous borax solutions on the morphology, mechanical, thermal and chemical properties of regenerated cellulose fiber woven fabric reinforced hydrogel composites. The fabric reinforced hydrogel composites were fabricated with PVA/viscose ring, PVA/viscose open-end (viscose OE), PVA/viscose continuous filament (viscose CF) blended woven fabrics. Mechanical tests results showed that regenerated cellulose fiber woven fabric reinforced hydrogel composites made from PVA/viscose CF (380 N) exhibited better mechanical performance than its viscose ring (258 N) and viscose OE (318 N) counterparts. Another significant result, evaluated using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) data analysis showed that there was a high level positive and meaningful relationship between borax-water concentration and breaking force at the breaking points of regenerated cellulose woven fabric reinforced hydrogel composites in the warp direction. The results have suggested that the regenerated cellulose fabric reinforced hydrogel composites with enhanced mechanical properties could be used as agricultural water retention materials and in geotextiles applications.

One-step and rapid preparation of natural fiber woven fabric reinforced hydrogel composites via simultaneous dissolution and crosslinking of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) yarns in the fabric was reported. In this regards, PVA/Cotton (C), PVA/Flax (F) and PVA/Wool (W) blended woven fabrics were prepared for the manufacturing fabric reinforced hydrogel composites. The hybrid woven fabric reinforced fabrics were treated with different concentrations of borax solutions. Aqueous borax solutions were used to alter the PVA yarns in the fabric into cross-linked structure in order to enhance mechanical performance of the hydrogel composite. Morphological investigation of hydrogel composites in a dried form was carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging. The chemical characterization of aqueous borax treated samples was examined by fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements. Mechanical performances of the hydrogel composites were observed by tensile measurements. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted to characterize thermal stability of hydrogel composites. The results revealed that natural fiber woven fabric reinforcement significantly enhanced the mechanical strength of hydrogel composites, and wool fabric reinforced composite had better mechanical performance than its cotton and flax counterparts. Due to the low mechanical properties of hydrogels in general, the prepared fabric reinforced hydrogel composites could be used in hydrogel applications where mechanical strength is critically important.

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/cotton (Co) woven fabrics were produced by constructing Co as warp yarns and PVA as weft yarns in the fabric structure. As-prepared PVA/Co fabrics were treated with borax/water solution. Because of the simultaneous dissolution and gelation of PVA yarn in the fabric and transformation of PVA molecules into cross-linked gel structures, gel penetrated among the yarns in the matrix form and hence Co yarn-reinforced composite hydrogels were obtained. The retention time of water by composite hydrogels was first increased and then decreased by increasing borax concentration in the cross-linker solution. With yarn reinforcing, the tensile strength of hydrogel structure significantly increased. Mechanical properties of hydrogel composites were very variable depending on water content in the structure and tensile strength tremendously increased when water evaporated from the structure. Thermal and chemical characterizations of yarn-reinforced hydrogel composites were conducted in addition to swelling and mechanical analysis to investigate the performance of the hydrogel composites.

Cotton-woven fabric-reinforced polyvinyl alcohol-based hydrogel composite was produced by constructing cotton as warp and polyvinyl alcohol/cotton hybrid and polyvinyl alcohol yarns as weft yarns in the fabric structure. As-prepared polyvinyl alcohol/cotton fabrics were treated with different concentrations of aqueous borax and glutaraldehyde crosslinking solutions. Polyvinyl alcohol molecules were transformed to crosslinked gel structure after the treatments. Since cotton yarns kept their yarn structure in the fabrics, woven fabric-reinforced hydrogel composites were obtained. Chemical analysis to investigate crosslinking was conducted by attenuated total reflection–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra analysis, and the results revealed that a proper crosslinking of polyvinyl alcohol molecules in polyvinyl alcohol yarns occurred by using both borax and glutaraldehyde as crosslinkers. Thermal stabilities of the samples were observed via thermogravimetric analysis measurements. Even though borax crosslinking increased the thermal stability, glutaraldehyde crosslinking did not have a significant effect on the thermal stability of hydrogel composite. Crystalline microstructural analysis was carried out with X-ray diffraction measurement. Tensile properties of the samples by focusing on the crosslinker ratio and water contents in the hydrogel composites were performed. The results revealed that tensile properties of hydrogel composite tremendously increased with fabric reinforcement. Also, breaking force gradually increased when the hydrogel composite structure released the water from its structure at both borax and glutaraldehyde samples. Since the produced fabric-reinforced hydrogel composites have high strength, they are promising candidates as hygroscopic materials for planting and erosion control at inclined terrains.