Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology

Department of Textile Engineering

Coures Title: Textile Technology

Cotton

Mohammad Tajul Islam

tajul.dtt@aust.edu

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• Cotton is a soft, staple fibre that grows
around the seeds of the cotton plants,
belonging to the Malvaceae Family of
the genus Gossypium, native to
tropical and subtropical regions around
the world, including the Americas, Asia
and Africa.
• The fiber most often is spun into yarn
or thread and used to make soft,
breathable textiles, which are the most
widely used natural-fiber cloths in
clothing today.

The English name which

began to be used circa 1400,
derives from the Arabic (al)
qutn ‫ﻕقُﻁطْﻥن‬, meaning cotton.

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There are four plant species from the genus Gossypium,
that are grown commercially for cotton fibre used to
manufacture cloth:

▪ Gossypium arboreum – Tree cotton, native to India

and Pakistan (long staple 24 - 28 mm);

▪ Gossypium barbadensis – Tree cotton known as

American Pima, Egyptian, Makò or Sea island cotton,
native to tropical South America
(the best, very long staple > 28 mm);

▪ Gossypium herbaceum – Levant cotton, native to

southern Africa and Arabian Peninsula
(short staple < 18 mm);

▪ Gossypium hirsutum – Upland cotton, native to

Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and southern
Florida, most commonly grown species in the world
(medium-long staple 18 - 28 mm).

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Cotton is by far the most popular
natural fibre in use today, at least in
terms of volume of production (~ 25 M tons/year).

Module of harvested cotton

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Almost half of the world’s
requirements for textile
fibres are met by cotton.
It is grown in many parts
of the world where a hot
dry climate is to be found,
the main producers being:
China, India, USA,
Pakistan, the former
USSR, Africa, and South
America.

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Leading producer countries

Harvested cotton in Tennessee

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Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long frost-free period, plenty of sunshine, and a
moderate rainfall, usually from 600 to 1200mm.
Soils usually need to be fairly heavy, although the level of nutrients does not need to be
exceptional.
In general, these conditions are met within the seasonally dry tropics and subtropics in the
Northern and Southern hemispheres, but a large proportion of the cotton grown today is
cultivated in areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation.
Planting time in spring in the Northern hemisphere varies from the beginning of February
to the beginning of June.

Cotton is a thirsty crop, and as water resources

get tighter around the world, economies
that rely on it face difficulties and conflict, as well
as potential environmental problems.

For example, cotton has led to desertification in

areas of Uzbekistan, where it is a major export.
In the days of the former Soviet Union, the Aral
Sea was tapped for agricultural irrigation, largely
of cotton, and now salination is widespread.

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Cultivation of cotton requires low cost manpower or higly mechanized modern agriculture.

Seeding cotton Cotton pesticide spraying

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 Cotton goes into maturity in 150-180 days; it must be harvested quickly.
Cotton continues to be picked by hand in developing countries. Most cotton in the United
States, Europe, and Australia is harvested mechanically, either by a cotton picker, a
machine that removes the cotton from the boll without damaging the cotton plant, or by a
cotton stripper, which strips the entire boll off the plant.

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 Offloading freshly harvested cotton into a module builder inTexas

Prepared into compact module to transfer for the gining process

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 Pests and weeds

The cotton industry relies heavily on

chemicals, such as fertilizers and insecticides.

Historically, in North America, one of the most

economically destructive pests in cotton
production has been the boll weevil.

Hoeing a cotton field to remove weeds, Greene

County, Georgia, USA, 1941

Due to the US Department of Agriculture's highly successful Boll Weevil Eradication Program
(BWEP), this pest has been eliminated from cotton in most of the United States.
This program, along with the introduction of genetically engineered Bt cotton (which contains
a bacterial gene that codes for a plant-produced protein that is toxic to a number of pests
such as cotton bollworm and pink bollworm), has allowed a reduction in the use of synthetic
insecticides.

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Genetic modification
Genetically modified (GM) cotton was developed
to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides. The
bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally
produces a chemical harmful only to a small
fraction of insects, most notably the larvae of
moths and butterflies, beetles, and flies, and
harmless to other forms of life. The gene coding
for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing
cotton to produce this natural insecticide in its
tissues.
In many regions, the main pests in commercial
cotton are lepidopteran larvae, which are killed
by the Bt protein in the transgenic cotton they eat.
Cotton modules in Australia

This eliminates the need to use large amounts of broad-spectrum insecticides to kill
lepidopteran pests (some of which have developed pyrethroid resistance).
This spares natural insect predators in the farm ecology and further contributes to
noninsecticide pest management.
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said that,
worldwide, GM cotton was planted on an area of 16 million hectares in 2009.
This was 49% of the worldwide total area planted in cotton.
The U.S. cotton crop was 93% GM in 2010 and the Chinese cotton crop was 68% GM in 2009.
The initial introduction of GM cotton proved to be a huge success in Australia: until 95% of the
Australian cotton crop was GM in 2009.

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Organic production
A small number of farmers are moving toward an organic model of production, and
organic cotton products are now available for purchase at limited locations.
These are popular for baby clothes and diapers.
Under most definitions, organic products do not use genetic engineering.
Organic cotton is generally understood as cotton from plants not genetically modified,
that is certified to be grown without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemicals,
such as fertilizers or pesticides.

Its production also promotes and enhances biodiversity and biological cycles.

United States cotton plantations are required to enforce the National Organic Program
(NOP). This institution determines the allowed practices for pest control, growing,
fertilizing, and handling of organic crops.

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Organic production

As of 2007, 265,517 bales of organic cotton were produced in 24 countries, and worldwide
production was growing at a rate of more than 50% per year.
Organic cotton actually accounts for 0.8% of global cotton production. The leading producing
are India, Turkey, Syria, Tanzania, PR China, United States, Uganda, Peru, Egypt and
Burkina Faso. The global retail sales of organic cotton apparel and home textiles products
exceeded US $ 3 billion in 2009.

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Cotton production is very efficient, in the sense
that only ten percent or less of the weight is lost
in subsequent processing to convert the raw
cotton bolls (seed coat) into pure fibre.

Fibres (lint) are removed from the seeds

mechanically by the “ginning” process.
Then, a brushing-machine removes the linters.

The cotton linters are fine, silky fibres which adhere to the seeds of the cotton plant after
ginning. These curly fibers typically are less than 3 mm long.

Linters are traditionally used in the manufacture of paper and as a raw material in the
manufacture of high quality cellulose man made fibres.

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The cotton seed which remains after the cotton is
ginned is used to produce cottonseed oil, which,
after refining, can be consumed by humans like
any other vegetable oil.
The cottonseed meal that is left generally is fed to
livestock.

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Cotton fiber, once it has been
processed to remove seeds
(ginning) and traces of honeydew
(a secretion from aphids), protein,
vegetable matter, and other
impurities, consists of nearly (88 -
96%) pure cellulose, a natural
polymer sugar (polysaccharide).

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Cellulose is a polymer of glucose units linked by β(1→4) glycoside bonds.

3
2
4 1
1 4
2
3

Glucose is an aldohexose monosaccharide (sugar), a carbohydrate* known as one

of the products of photosynthesis in plants:

hυ
6 CO2 + 6 H2O C6H12O6 + 6 O2

* the general formula of carbohydrates is Cn (H2O)m with m = n or m = n-1

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There are some thousands units of monomer of β-glucose in native cellulose
(the degreeof polymerisation DP is > 1000). Cellulose DP falls to some hundreds in the
course of further processing.
The reapeting unit of cellulose is the dimer of β-glucose, namely the cellobiose which is
derived from the condensation of two β- glucose molecules linked in a β(1→4) bond.

Reapeting unit: cellobiose

Cellobiose is a disaccharide with the formula C12H22O11 ; Molar mass 342.30

Cellobiose has eight free alcohol (COH) groups and three ether linkages, which give rise
to strong inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds.
Because of the equatorial positions of the hydroxyls on the cellulose chain, they protrude
laterally along the extended molecule. This positioning makes them readily available for
hydrogen bonding. These hydrogen bonds cause the chains to group together in highly
ordered (crystal-like) structures.

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Each cotton fibre is formed by the elongation of a single cell from the surface of the seed,
made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose, coiled in a neat series of natural springs.

Protoplasm channel (lumen)

Protoplasm -----------------------------

cellulose solution -------------------------

Seed side Tip

Secondary walls Primary wall

Because they are made up of a single cell, the longest fibres are the tinnest, differently from
wool.

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 The series of natural springs are also known as the “rings of growth”

Cotton consists typically of between 88 to 96% cellulose with the rest being
proteins, pectin substances (gum-like carbohydrates), ash and fatty matters (vegetable
greases and waxes).
Pectins are cellulose-originated substances whith both ether & ester groups, containing
also C5 cyclic units (pentosan) from fructose (another natural sugar).

After scouring and bleaching, cotton is then about 99% cellulose.

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 Cotton

Origin:
vegetable, gen. gossypium

Chemical and macromolecular structure:

native cellulose 90%
carbohydrate, polysaccharide
DP = 2.000-3000

Supramolecular structure:
crystalline domains (>70%) of symmetric cellulose chains

Morphology structure:
mono-cellular with fibrillar structure

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Main chemical & physical properties of cotton
Heat: doesn’t melt; decomposes at T > 150° giving raise to carbonaceous char.

Flame: burns readly (LOI = 18%) with “burning paper” smell.

Water: hydrophlic (Regain 8.5%); mechanical properties improve when wet (-H bonds).

Acids: resists to cold diluted mineral acids but is destroyed by concentrated acids (hydrolisis
by cleaving the 1-4-glycosidic bonds).

Bases: resist well to caustic alkalis, cold concentrated alkalis form alkali-cellulose
(mercerisation).

Solvents: resists well to organic solvents used in dry cleaning.

Oxidants: resists to ipochlorites, chlorites and hydrogen peroxide used in bleaching, although
strong oxidising agents forms the expected aldehyde and ketone, and carboxyl groups
(oxicellulose).

Reductants: resists to reductants.

Dyeing: easy dyed with most dyes (except acids and disperse dyes).

Sun eposure: sensible to photodegradation.

Biodegradation: not inherently resistant to moulds and bacteria; it is also degraded by

cellulase enzymes.

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Main chemical & physical properties of cotton

Cotton is a relatively strong fibre with a strength of 25 to 35 cN/tex and elongation at

break of 7 to 9%.

It is stronger when wet.

Cotton also absorbs moisture readily, which makes cotton clothes comfortable to wear in
warm weather or to be used for towels (water retention of 50%, moisture regain of 7%).

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Uses & behaviour of cotton-based textiles
Cotton is used to make a number of textile products for casual wear, leisure, sport,
household textiles and apparel. These include highly absorbent bath towels and robes;
denim, used to make blue jeans; chambray, popularly used in the manufacture of blue work
shirts (from which we get the term "blue-collar") and cotton twill.
Socks, underwear, and most shirts and blouses are made of cotton.
Bed sheets often are made of cotton. Cotton also is used to make yarn used in knitting.

Despite its low resistance to crease (wrinkle), cotton has good hand, good tensile properties
(tenacity, elongation), good resistance to abrasion and excellent resistance to pilling.
Moisture in the fibres prevents build up of static electricity.

Taking care of cotton is very easy, especially domestic washing because of the excellent
mechanical strength when wet.

It has good color fastness (wet & light exposure) especially with reactive dyes and it is easily
bleached with oxidants (both hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide) and fluorescent dyes.

While many fabrics are made completely of cotton, some materials blend cotton with other
fibers, including rayon and synthetic fibers such as polyester.
It can either be used in knitted or woven fabrics, as it can be blended with elastomers to
make a strechier thread for knitted fabrics, and things such as strech jeans.

In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used in fishnets, coffee filters, gunpowder (see
Nitrocellulose), cotton paper, and in bookbinding.
Synthetic fibres have largely replaced its use in industrial and technical textiles.
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