STUDIES ON SWELLING OF COTTON FIBERS IN ALKALI-METAL HYDROXIDES .4. INFLUENCE OF INITIAL FIBER PROPERTIES AND VARIATIONS IN FINE-STRUCTURE ON TENSILE BEHAVIOR

Nineteen varieties of cotton, covering a wide range of fiber propertie s like maturity, fineness, and strength uniformity ratio were swollen in 5N KOH and NaOH at room temperature (30 +/- 1 degrees C). Tensile a nd fine structural properties of the resultant samples were measured a nd their relationship with initial fiber properties was examined. A co mparative evaluation of fiber properties of KOH swollen fibers with th ose swollen in NaOH revealed that, irrespective of variety, fibers swo llen in the former reagent retain higher tenacity. It was further note d that fine structural parameters like crystallite orientation and amo rphous content which influence tensile properties become modified diff erently while swelling in the two reagents. While changes in crystalli te orientation were found to be less drastic during KOH swelling, unli ke in NaOH, the reverse was found to be true with crystalline content. These changes in fine structure could more or less explain the variat ion in tensile properties of fibers swollen in these two reagents. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.