Cotton Fibre

History of cotton:
Cotton is the oldest and most important textile fiber in the world. Historians can hardly trace
cotton to its origin. The best we know is that the English word “Cotton” is derived from the
Arabic word katan (or qutn, kuteen). Each cotton fiber is a Unicellular hair collected from the
seed of the cotton plant .Cotton plant belongs to the Order Malvales, the family Malvlaceac, the
tribe Gosspieae, and the genus Gossypium. It grows in sub-tropical climates. Most of the cotton
is cultivated in Asia, Africa, America, Egypt, India and other places.
Cotton is by far the backbone of the world’s textile trade. Cotton is grown in more than 80
countries worldwide. Its current market share is about more than 50% for all fibers used for
apparel and home furnishings.

Cotton cultivation and harvesting:

The cultivation of cotton trees and the growing condition is not the same according to the climate
and temperature of the cultivation land. For its cultivation, 6-7 months hot climate, sufficient
sunlight and humidity are required. The different steps of cotton cultivation are given in a
sequence below:
Seeds are sown in spring

They sprout after 2/3 weeks

After 2-3 months of sprouting, plant flowers bloom

The flowers fall off after a few days and leaving cotton balls

Seed hair start to grow inside the balls, one cotton ball has about 5-10 adzuki bean like cotton
fruits

For 16-18 days, fiber length and other parameters are achieved

For the next 22-50 days, cellulose is deposited inside the fiber
 When cellulose deposition is stopped, the balls become dry and burst naturally and the cotton
appears as a soft wad of fine fiber

The balls are picked up manually or by machine, this picking period continue for 1-3 months

Finally the balls are taken for ginning to collect the fibers

Classification of cotton on the basis of length:

Commercial cotton may be classified broadly into following three classes with
Reference of the staple length.
1. Short staple:
Length: 3/8 inch to 1 inch
Coarse and low grade fibers which have often low strength and
have little or no luster
Diameter: 13-22 micron
Example: India and Asiatic cotton
2. Medium staple:
Length: 0.5 inch to 1.25 inch
Medium strength, medium luster
Diameter: 12-17 micron
Example: American cotton
3. long staple :
Length: 1 inch to 2.5 inch
Fine, luster and top quality cotton
Diameter: 10-12 micron
Example: Sea Island cotton, Egyptian, American pima
Chemical composition of cotton : Chemical composition of raw cotton and the quantity
different constituents vary greatly with the place where the cotton is cultivate and the art of
cotton plant. Due to this reason we can express the average value of different component of
cotton.

Constituents Percent

Cellulose 94.0
Protein 1.3
Pectin substances 1.2
Ash 1.2
Fat and wax 0.6
Organic acid, sugar
And others 1.7
Among the plant fibers cotton contains the highest amount of cellulose and it is lignin free. The
portion of hemicelluloses and pectin in comparison to other plant fiber is low.

Properties of cotton fiber:

Cotton a unique cellulosic fiber , possesses an outstanding range of properties making it one of
the most popular apparel fibers worldwide.
Physical properties:
a. Length and width:
Cotton is the shortest natural fiber used in commercially in the textile industry ranging from 0.5-
2-5 inches in length. The width of typical cotton fiber may vary between 12 to 20 microns.
b. Shape:
A typical, matured raw cotton fiber looks like a flattened tube and the cross section is oval or
kidney shape. Under microscope, it is a long twisted ribbon.

c. Strength:
Cotton is a moderately strong fiber .tenacity of cotton fiber is 26.5-44 cN/Tex and the extension
at break is about 8-10 %
d. Elasticity:
Cotton is relatively rigid fiber (Less elastic).At 2% extension is has an elastic recovery of 74%,
at 5% extension; the elastic recovery is 45%.
e. Porosity: Cotton fiber is somewhat porous, and consequential, it absorbs moisture readily.
f. Moisture regain:
Cotton has a moisture regain of 8.5%. At 100% humidity, cotton has an absorbency of 25-27%
g. Colour:
Normally the colour of cotton is creamy-white.
h. Handle:
Cotton is naturally very soft and comfortable. That is why it is particularly favored for garments
that get close to the skin.
j. Luster:
Cotton fiber has a natural luster which is due to the natural polish on the surface and its nearly
circular cross-sectional shape. The smooth, hard primary coat of cellulose contains waxes which
no doubt contributes to the luster of the fiber.
Chemical properties:
a. Effect of acid:
Cotton fiber is not affected by cold week acids. But whenever it is brought into contact with hot
diluted acid or cold concentrated acids, degradation of cellulose takes place and the fibers loss
their strength. Cotton fiber can fully dissolved in high concentrated mineral acid.
b. Effect of alkalis:
Cotton has an excellent resistance to alkalis. It swells in caustic alkali (mercerization) but not
damaged. But the fiber is affected by hot alkali particularly in the presence of air .In this case,
NaOH promotes cellulose oxidation by atmospheric oxygen resulting in the formation of
oxycellulose . For this reason, it is suggested that to carry out the scouring of cotton in a hooded
machine.
c. Effect of organic solvent:
Here are few solvents that will dissolve cotton completely. It has a high resistance to Normal
solvents but it dispersed by the copper complexes cuprammonium hydroxide and
cupriethylene diamine and by concentrated (70%) H2SO4
d. Effect of oxidizing agent:
For chemical treatment cotton fiber is treated with different types of oxidizing agents like sodium
hypochlorite, sodium perborate, hydrogen peroxide, sodium chlorite etc. These reagents lead to
chemical attack initially in the functional groups and then progressively cause the chain scission,
lowering the DP and reducing the tensile strength.
e. Action of micro organism:
Cotton fiber can resist moths and most insects, but it can be attacked by fungi and bacteria.
Mildew, for example, causes weakening and rotting tine cotton fiber often characterized by a
musty smell. The presence of starchy material as a sizing or a finishing agent also promotes the
growth of the mildew. Mildews and bacteria will flourish on cotton under moist and hot
condition.

F. Action of water:
Water, which is very strong polar in nature, easily attracted by the polar –OH groups of the
cotton fiber. So that water is able to penetrate into the cellulose network of the cotton fiber.
However, its porous structure also allows ready penetration of water molecules between the
fibrils and into the amorphous region of the polymer, where they can easily from hydrogen bond
with free –OH group of cellulose .This water absorption causes swelling of the fiber. Due to
swelling, cotton fiber shows greater strength in the wet state than dry. This is because of the
screw-shaped arrangement of the fibril in cotton fiber, which are supposed to be pressed more
firmly against each other by the swelling action.
Other properties:
Effect of temperature:
Cotton fibers show an excellent resistance to thermal decomposition. They have the ability to
conduct heat energy and do allow any destructive heat accumulation. Thus they can withstand high
temperature, but the stability depends to a great extend on the heating time and temperature.
Prolonged heating at 100 C shows the cotton no visible change.
Heating at 120 C for several hours shows the cotton little or no change in strength, but begins to
tarn yellow gradually.
Cotton decomposes markedly at 150 C
At 240 C intensive decomposition takes place with the formation of liquid and gaseous products of
different composition.

Effect of light:
There is a gradual loss of strength when cotton is exposed to sunlight for a long time and the fiber
turns yellow.
The degradation of cotton takes place in presence of atmospheric oxygen (formation of
oxycellulose). It is particularly at high temperature and in the presence of moisture. Much of the
damage is caused by ultra-violet light and by the shorter waves of visible light.