Properties and Structure of Never-Dried Cotton Fibers

Abstract

Field-opened cotton fibers show remarkable torsional rotation during ambient hu midity changes between about 30% and 100%. If the never-dried cotton fibers are freeze-dried or treated with NaOH (-urea) and acrylonitrile, the resulting fibers have fewer convolutions, lower torsional rotation during humidity changes, and lower spe cific gravity and higher moisture regain than air-dried fibers. There is no definite correlation between number or direction of fiber convolutions and maximum angle or direction of torsional rotation during humidity changes. The tensile strength of never-dried wet fibers is low and increases when dried; it does not decrease with rewet ting, but increases further.