Chemical Applications Interest Group Meeting: Anti-mold Treatments for Textiles

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Chemical Applications Interest Group Members!

Presentation Title: The Critical Role of Water Activity in Preventing Mold Growth in Textiles Speakers: Brady Carter – Novasina IG Abstract: Mold growth in textiles remains a significant challenge throughout manufacturing, storage, transportation, and distribution, often leading to product loss, quality issues, and supply chain disruption. While the textile industry has traditionally relied on moisture-content and conductivity-based measurements to evaluate fabric dryness, these methods do not accurately predict microbial stability. This presentation highlights the critical role of water activity (aw) as the scientifically relevant parameter governing mold growth. Water activity measures the energy of water and determines if microorganisms can access water for biological processes. This provides a direct indication of mold susceptibility, regardless of fiber type or moisture content. Results demonstrate that most textiles exhibit water activity levels well below the practical mold-growth threshold of 0.70 aw under normal conditions; however, exposure to elevated environmental humidity during storage and transport can rapidly increase water activity to unsafe levels, even when traditional moisture measurements remain within acceptable limits. Understanding and controlling water activity enables textile manufacturers to establish more effective mold-prevention strategies, optimize packaging and storage conditions, and reduce mold-related losses across the supply chain Learning Objectives: The scientific importance of water activity in textile materials. The development of a practical and repeatable method for measuring water activity in fabrics. The limitations of conductivity-based moisture measurement systems commonly used in the textile industry. The influence of temperature and environmental humidity on textile water activity. The critical role of humidity exposure during storage and transportation in promoting mold contamination. How water activity can be used to establish more effective mold-prevention strategies throughout the textile supply chain Speaker Bio Dr. Brady Carter (brady.carter@novasina.com) is a Senior Research Scientist with Novasina. He specializes in water activity, moisture sorption, moisture determination, and shelf-life. Dr. Carter earned his Ph.D. and M.S Degree in Food Engineering and Crop Science from Washington State University and a B.A. Degree in Botany from Weber State University. He has 24 years of experience in research and development as well as scientific support. He has been the instructor for training seminars in over 23 different countries and has provided on-site training for companies around the world. He has authored over 20 white papers on water activity, moisture sorption isotherms, and complete moisture analysis. He has participated in hundreds of extension presentations and has given talks at numerous scientific conferences. He developed the shelf-life simplified paradigm and hygrothermal time shelf-life model and enjoys applying water activity to shelf-life prediction and optimization.