Properties of Cotton Fibre

Properties of Cotton Fibre

Rifat Jahangir
Lecturer,
International Standard University, Dhaka
Email: rifatjahangir.ony@gmail.com

In the field of fibres, cotton is the world’s most dominating fibre. It is still considered as the “King” of global fibre sector. It is almost a pure cellulosic fibre, which contains about 80-90% cellulose. This natural fibre is controlling most of the global textile sector because of its outstanding properties and acts. It is the best suited fibre for the whole year except excessive winter. That’s why it is considered as the “All-Season Fabric”.

The produced garments of this fibre holds the massive state in producing fabrics among the all fibres. It’s only for the individual characteristics of it. It’s quite interesting to know or acquiring knowledge about the properties of cotton fibre, which influences it to stand at the prime position continuously. Cotton fibre has several important properties that make it a popular choice for textiles and various applications. Let’s know about some of the properties of cotton fibre shortly,

Tensile Strength:
Strength of any fibre is a mandatory feature. Any fibre should have enough strength. On that point of view, cotton is fairly strong fibre. The tenacity of it is about 3-5 g/den. But sometimes the strength is affected by the moisture regain, which enables the fibre to be stronger than the dry strength. Because the water molecules only enter amorphous regions, which creates the hydrogen bonding between the adjacent polymer chains. This property influences the yarn and produced fabric to be more durable, which is a demandable feature of this fibre.

Color:
On the very beginning, the color of cotton fibre may vary to white to creamy white. But it also consists yellowish white, grey etc. The color of this fibre is totally based on the picking time. If we pick it at the right time we will get a good impact on the next stages like dyeing, controlling brightness, luster etc. and then on desired garments. So color has a very high impact on the produced fabric because only it holds the outlook of this fibre outstandingly.

Elastic Recovery (ER):
As the cotton fibre is a rigid fibre, it is not so elastic like other fibres. And it has a very low recovery from the deformation load. As we know, at 2% extension, it has an ER of 74% and at 5% extension it has an ER of 45%, which indicates it will not be able to ensure higher elastic recovery on the end products.

Length:
The length of cotton fibre may very as,

• Short Staple: Consists the length of 0.375 -1 inch with a diameter of 13-20 microns. This type of fibres has medium strength and luster. Basically Indian and Asiatic cotton fibres are of this type.
• Medium Staple: Consists the length of 1-1.12 inch with a diameter of 12-27 microns. This type of fibres also has medium strength and luster. Basically American Upload cotton of this type.
• Long Staple: Consists the length of 1.12-2.5 inch with a diameter of 10-15 microns. This type of fibres has higher strength and fine luster. Basically Egyptian and American cotton fibres are of this type.

These individual types of cotton fibres are used on basis of the regional demands. And every types plot a great impact on the desired products as all of them hold a good fibre quality.

Fineness:
It expresses that how many fibres are present in the cross-section of a yarn in any given thickness. And it depends on the length of the fibre. As the cotton fibre has an elegant to longer length, the fineness of cotton fibre is quite higher. And also the fineness will be short when the length of cotton fibre is short. It also influences the durability of the produced garments.

Moisture Regain:
The effect of moisture will increase the tensile strength. It’s because of formation of the hydrogen bonds between the adjacent polymer chain. Normally under the humidity condition, the standard moisture regain of cotton fibre is 8.5%. It increases the fibre strength about 20% and also improves the physical properties of the yarn. Besides these, it makes the desired garments more comfortable to wear.

Elongation at Break:
This property generally determines that how much stress a fibre can allow. But in this case, cotton fibre is not too much fit to take higher stress. As a result, the end products won’t be able to take stress. This fibre has an elongation at break of only 5-10%.

Effect of Age:
This is a kind of important property which stands on the durability of a garment. Cotton fibre has a loss of a little bit strength when it is stored very carefully in a 50 years’ duration.

Effect of Heat:
At the time of processing the cotton fibre, it confronts heat many times. But on that every processing times, it shows a magnificent resistance to the heat. So it can be said that, it is very resistant to degradation by heat. It begins to dull when it contacts more than 120-150 for several hours. So, it can be said that, the cotton fabrics won’t degrade at light temperature.

Effect of Sunlight:
Cotton fabrics lose strength due to sunlight. And when it’s exposed to sunlight, the color of the fabric turns yellowish. That means the color is also faded due to sunlight. Lastly, fabrics of this fibre will face a degradation due to sunlight in a very short time according to the usage.

Effect of Acid:
Cotton fibres are getting very weakened by the cold weak dilute acids and degraded by strong or concentrated acids. Acid solution hydrolyzes the polymer chain at the (-O-) position of glycosidic linkage. Thus, the fabrics will easily have degraded by the strong acids.

Effect of Alkali:
This fibre is being unaffected and unchanged in alkali solution. Basically the effect of alkali on this fibre is beneficial to its physical structure. It’s happened under the treatment of NaOH. Alkali solution shapes the cotton fibre from oval to circular. This circular shape increases the strength and luster of the fibre so to produced fabric.

Effect of Organic Solvents:
The desired garments of cotton fibre face a lot of organic solvents during its processing like dyeing, printing etc. But at every stage of actions it shows a high resistance to the cleaning solvents which are considered as organic solvents. So the fabrics of this fibre are not easily degraded on the organic solvents.

Effect of Micro-Organism:
Basically, fungi, bacteria mildews are considered as micro-organism. Cotton fibre is not more resistant to them. So it also effects on the ultimate products. But by using of a chemical like copper naphthenate can give us a better solution here, which protects the fabrics from micro-organisms.

Cotton fibre has basically very unique physical and chemical qualities that make it a valuable textile material for a variety of industries. Physically, it is famous for its softness, strength, absorbency, breathability and thus it has become popular for textiles and apparel. Cotton’s chemical composition is largely of cellulose, that gives stability and durability, but its hydrophilic nature allows it to absorb moisture efficiently. Basically cotton fibre’s biodegradability and other qualities make it a sustainable and widely utilized natural fibre.

References:

1. Chemical Properties of Cotton Fibre and Chemical Modification (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00871-0_5)
2. Physical and Chemical Properties of Cotton Fibre-Based Composites (https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527832996.ch8)

Mazharul Islam Kiron

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

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