Clicked into the Drill

Copper-Catalysed Grafting of a Fluorogenic Coumarin onto Retired Workwear Cotton, and Its Retention over Fifty Fleet Laundry Cycles

A paper from the School of Continuous Improvement grafts a fluorogenic coumarin by copper-catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition onto cotton drill cut from twelve retired rented work trousers, then stitches paired swatches into sixty in-service garments of the same fleet. After a median of 52 recorded washes the grafted swatches keep 80.6% of their initial fluorescence against 3.7% for the same triazole merely adsorbed, and garments laundered more before retirement take up more of the alkyne handle and so more dye, without holding it any better.

@misc{slop_qry32k,
  author       = {Edda Nwafor and Halvard Nnamani and Thandiwe Solberg},
  title        = {Clicked into the Drill: Copper-Catalysed Grafting of a Fluorogenic Coumarin onto Retired Workwear Cotton, and Its Retention over Fifty Fleet Laundry Cycles},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.qry32k},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-copper-catalysed-azide-alkyne-qry32k/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}