Genuine leather generally refers to natural leather products made from animal skins through tanning and other processes.
Genuine leather cross-section simulation diagram
Natural leather cross-section diagram
Synthetic leather is an imitation natural leather product made by compounding fabric and synthetic resin.
Sectional view of synthetic leather (fabric and resin can be seen)
Vegetable leather uses plant fiber to replace the synthetic fiber fabric in the preparation of synthetic leather, and then uses composite high-quality Molecular polymers to prepare leather products with a natural leather style. Preparation methods include:
Using natural fibers that are fibrous in nature, such as cotton, linen, etc.;
Extracting cellulose (Cellulose) from plants and then spinning it Cellulose fibers.
Because the three most abundant substances in plants are cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, and cellulose has the most regular structure and is currently the most mature extraction method in industry, it can be dissolved by NMMO solvent and alkali. The spinning solution is made by dissolving urea at low temperature, and then fibers are made through the spinning process.
Theoretically, any plant can be made into vegetable leather, such as straw, trees, flowers, etc. However, due to the content of cellulose and the difficulty of obtaining raw materials, it is now more common in plants with high cellulose content such as wood.
For example: pineapple leaves
Pineapple leaves and fibers made from them
For example: Pi?atex leather alternative developed by Dr. Carmen Hijosa was first presented at the Royal London Exhibited at the School of Art PhD Candidates Exhibition. And manufactured and sold at Ananas Anam Ltd.
Web link: This is the company’s official website. If you are interested, you can view different types of vegetable leather.
Because the current technology is not mature yet, the physical properties of the product are currently low and need to be manufactured by compounding other plant fiber filaments, and the production cost is much higher than that of synthetic leather, so it has not yet been widely promoted. But there is no doubt that this is a very good way to use the most resource-rich plants on the earth to replace petrochemical products and provide green imitation leather products.