Textile Fibers: Study of Cellulosic Fibers (Cotton)

Textile Fibers
Study of Cellulosic Fibers (Cotton)

Biological classification of cotton
• Gossypium herbaceum:
• Shorter staple length
• Cultivated in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam
• Gossypium barbadense:
• Native to south America
• Also called Extra long staple (ESL) for their longer staple length.
• Gossypium arboretum:
• Shorter staple length
• Cultivated in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam
• Gossypium hirsutum:
• Native to Mexico and Central America
• (Staple length: 24mm-36mm)
• Mostly used in apparel, home and industrial textiles.
Major Cotton Cultivating Countries
• USA. India, Russia, Egypt, Brazil, USSR, China, Mexico, Pakistan, Turky,
Argentina, Peru. USA produce almost one fifth of the total crop
CHARATERISTICS OF COTTON
• Comfortable Soft hand

• Good absorbency
• Color retention
• Machine-washable
• Dry-cleanable
• Good strength
• Drapes well
• Easy to handle and sew
Classification of cotton in reference to the staple length
• Long Staple:
Length: 1-2.50” (26-65mm)
Diameter- 10-15 microns (0.99-1.62 den)
Example:- Sea Island cotton, Egyptian and American Pima cottons.
• Medium staple:
Length: 0.50”-1.3125” (12-33 mm)
Diameter: 12-17 microns (1.62-1.98 den)
Example: American upland and peruvianum types.
• Short staple:
Length: 0.375”-1” (9-26 mm)
Diameter: 13-22 microns (1.32-2.61 den)
Example: Indian and Asiatic cotton.
Classification of cotton fibre according to
maturity
• Mature Fibre
• Immature fibre
• Dead Fibre
Raw cotton components
Relative amount Main Location Component
80-90% Secondary Wall Cellulose
6-8% Water
0.5 - 1% Cuticle Waxes and fats
0 - 1.5% Lumen Proteins
4 - 6% Primary wall Hemicelluloses and

pectin’s
1 - 1.8% others
0.5% Primary Wall Carbohydrate
0.2% Lumen Salts

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF COTTON
Property Evaluation
Fairly uniform in width, 12–20
micrometers; length varies from 1 cm
to 6 cm (½ to 2½ inches); typical
Shape length is 2.2 cm to 3.3 cm (⅞ to 1¼
inches), mature fibre may be in
kidney shape, color may be white,
grey and cream.
Luster High
Tenacity (strength)
Dry 3.0–5.0 g/d
Wet 3.3–6.0 g/d
Resiliency Low
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF COTTON
Property Evaluation
Density 1.54–1.56 g/cm³
Moisture absorption
raw: conditioned 8.5%
saturation 15–25%
mercerized: conditioned 8.5–10.3%
saturation 15–27%+
Dimensional stability Good
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF COTTON
Property Evaluation
Dye ability Direct, reactive, sulphur and vat dye.
Resistance to acids Damage, weaken fibers
Resistance to alkali resistant; no harmful effects
Resistance to organic solvents high resistance to most such as dry cleaning agent.
Prolonged exposure weakens fibers & turn to yellow

Resistance to sunlight
color..
Resistance to microorganisms Mildew and rot-producing bacteria damage fibers.
Silverfish damage fibers but not affected by moth grubs

Resistance to Insects
or beetles.
Thermal reactions Begin to turn yellow color after several hours at 120º C.
to heat Decomposes after prolonged exposure to temperatures of
150˚C or over.
Thermal reactions to flame Burns readily.
Environment of cotton cultivation
• Cotton cultivation mainly takes place in tropical and subtropical
climates, sunshine, heavy rainfall, higher humidity is required for
cotton cultivation.
• Sufficient sunshine is necessary for cultivation while frost will kill the
plant.
• Cotton plants can survive in dry but best cultivation can be done in
place where rain fall is 20”-60” per year
• Irrigation is necessary when rainfall is less.
Cultivation of cotton
• Seed planted.
• Two weeks later two leaves appear on the plant.
• At five or six weeks later, the first flower appears.
• At eight to nine weeks the first flower blooms.
• Flower fall of leaving boll.
• Seed hairs start to grow inside the bolls.
• For 16-18 days, fiber length and perimeter achieved.
• For the next 22-50 days, cellulose is deposited inside the fibers.
• When cellulose deposition stops, the bolls dry and cracks to open.
• These bolls are picked up manually or by machine. This picking period is continue for 1-3
months
• Then ginning is done to collect the cotton fibers.
FIBER STRUCTURE AND FORMATION
• Each cotton fiber is composed of concentric layers.
• The cuticle layer on the fiber itself is separable from the fiber and consists
of wax and pectin materials.
• The primary wall, the most peripheral layer of the fiber, is composed of
cellulosic crystalline fibrils.
• The secondary wall of the fiber consists of three distinct layers. All three
layers of the secondary wall include closely packed parallel fibrils with
spiral winding of 25-35o and represent the majority of cellulose within the
fiber.
• The innermost part of cotton fiber- the lumen- is composed of the remains
of the cell contents.
• Before boll opening, the lumen is filled with liquid containing the cell
nucleus and protoplasm. The twists and convolutions of the dried fiber are
due to the removal of this liquid.
• The cross section of the fiber is bean-shaped, swelling almost round when
moisture absorption takes place.
Fig: The surface of a very young seed, showing infant cotton fibers
forming – U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Fig: Cellulose deposition in a spiral pattern round the long axis
(left). Cotton fiber convulsions (right).
FIBER STRUCTURE AND FORMATION
• During scouring (treatment of the fiber with caustic soda),
natural waxes and fats in the fiber are saponified and
pectin’s and other non-cellulose materials are released, so
that the impurities can be removed by just rinsing away.
• After scouring, a bleaching solution (consisting of a
stabilized oxidizing agent) interacts with the fiber and the
natural color is removed.
• Bleaching takes place at elevated temperature for a fixed
period of time.
• Mercerization is another process of improving sorption
properties of cotton. Cotton fiber is immersed into 18-
25% solution of sodium hydroxide often under tension.
• The fiber obtains better luster and sorption during
mercerization.
Repeat unit of cellulose
Repeat unit of cellulose-cond
• After scouring and bleaching, the fiber is 99% cellulose.
• Cellulose is a polymer consisting of anhydroglucose units
connected with 1,4 oxygen bridges in the beta position.
• The hydroxyl groups on the cellulose units enable hydrogen
bonding between two adjacent polymer chains.
• The degree of polymerization of cotton is 9,000-15,000.
Cellulose shows approximately 66% crystallinity, which can be
determined by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and
density methods.
• Each crystal unit consists of five chains of anhydroglucose units,
parallel to the fibril axis.
Why the strength of cotton fibre increase for wetting?
• When water molecule penetrate into the fibre structure, it lies

between the fibrils and into the amorphous regions of the
polymer where they can easily form hydrogen bonds with free
cellulose hydroxyl groups
• This water absorption causes the swelling of the secondary
cell wall but little fibre elongation.
• Although absorbed water acts on a plasticizer. It also cements
the cellulose chains and fibrils together by H. bonds. These
are the reasons for increasing the strength for wetting of
cotton fibres.
Harvesting & Ginning
• Most cotton in the United States, Europe, and Australia is harvested

mechanically.
• Cotton Picker, a machine that removes the cotton from the boll
without damaging the cotton plant.
• cotton stripper, which strips the entire boll off the plant.
• Cotton continues to be picked by hand in developing countries
Ginning
• Ginning is a process of that involves separating
the cotton fibres from the cotton seeds. A cotton
gin is a machine that easily separates the cotton
fibres from the seeds.
• The term Ginning refers to the process where a
cotton gin machine is used to separate cotton
fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes
sticky seeds. First of all, the cotton goes through
dryers to reduce the moisture and then through
cleaning equipment to remove foreign matter.
What is the purpose of a cotton gin?
• A ginner must have two objectives:

(1) to produce lint of satisfactory quality for the grower’s
market and
(2) to gin the cotton with minimum reduction in fibre
spinning quality, so that the cotton will meet the demands of
its ultimate users, the spinner and the consumer.
What is the purpose of a cotton gin?
• The other objectives are:
1. Seed-fiber separation: The cotton gin removes
the seeds from the cotton. This is a more difficult
and slower process when done by hand, without
the use of a cotton gin.
2. Cleaning: To remove waste and seeds together.
3. Conditioning: To add moisture
4. Packaging: To form bales with ginned cotton.
The Saw gin
• This consists of a steel grating in which are narrow slits.
• Through these come toothed saw that revolve, catching the fibres in
their teeth and pulling them through the slits.
• These seeds are too big to go through, and remain behind. The ginned
cotton is called lint.
The Saw gin:
• Ginning doesn’t remove all the cotton; short fibres are left adhering to
the seeds.
• These fibres are removed by passing the seed through another gin,
and the mass of short fibre produced (linters) is used for stuffing
upholstery and as a source of pure cellulose for industry.
• Production capacity is 100-1000 kg/hr
1. Feed hooper.
2. Feed roller.
Roller Gin 3. Spiked drum.
4. Net.
5. Inclined net.
6. Drum.
7. Ejecting drum.
8. Accelerating drum.
9. Functional roller.
10. Backing of roller.
11. Doffing roller.
12. Perforated sheet.
Roller gin
• The main part of roller ginning is spiked roller by which seeds
are separated from fiber by air flow.
• The seeded fiber comes in contact with feed roller by the help
of feed hopper.
• The seeded fibers are embedded on the two feed roller and are
fed to spiked roller.
• The trash are removed by the action of spike and are stored on
trash chamber by perforated sheet.
• Then seeded fiber pass through inclined net by air flow and
attached to the ejecting drum. Here accelerating drum
separates the cotton fiber and pass it.
• The accelerating drum transports the cotton fibers.
• Rough surface of functional roller takes only fibers and the
seeds are retained on backing roller.
• The doffing roller separates the fibers from functional roller and
transports through delivery pipe & the seeds fall on conveyor.
Saw Gin vs Roller Gin
Saw Gin Roller Gin
Short and medium length cotton Longer tuft of fibers
Faster process Slower Process
Cheaper Costly

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Textile Fibers

Study of Cellulosic Fibers (Cotton)

• Comfortable Soft hand

80-90% Secondary Wall Cellulose

0.5 - 1% Cuticle Waxes and fats

0 - 1.5% Lumen Proteins

4 - 6% Primary wall Hemicelluloses and

0.5% Primary Wall Carbohydrate

0.2% Lumen Salts

Resistance to acids Damage, weaken fibers

Resistance to alkali resistant; no harmful effects

Prolonged exposure weakens fibers & turn to yellow

Resistance to microorganisms Mildew and rot-producing bacteria damage fibers.

Silverfish damage fibers but not affected by moth grubs

• When water molecule penetrate into the fibre structure, it lies

• Most cotton in the United States, Europe, and Australia is harvested

• A ginner must have two objectives:

Short and medium length cotton Longer tuft of fibers

Faster process Slower Process

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