Chemical Structure of Cotton Fibre

Cotton Molecular Structure 3D

https://www.worldofmolecules.com/3D/cotton_3d.htm
Chemical Composition of Cotton Fibre
• Cellulose: 80-90% C : 44.68%
• Water: 6-8% O : 49.11%
• Oil and Wax: 0.5-1% H : 6.21%
• Pectin and Coloring Mats:
0-1.5%
• Mineral Matters: 1-1.8%
• Ash: 0-1%
Polymer System of Cotton
• The cotton polymer is very long (about 5000 nm in length and
about 0.8 nm thick), linear cellulose polymer.
• The repeating unit in the cotton polymer is Cellobiose which
consists of two glucose units.
• Degree of polymerization (DP) is about 5000.
• Cotton polymer system is about 65-70% crystalline and 35-30%
amorphous.
Why Strength of Cotton Fibre is increased in case of
wetting?
• Absorbency of Cotton/Effect of Water to Cotton Fibre:
Why Strength of Cotton Fibre is increased in case of
wetting?
Why Strength of Cotton Fibre is increased in case of
wetting?
• First, by strength we mean the stress (force/cross section area) required to
fracture the fiber (the stress requires to break the fiber)

• Cotton Fiber Dry Strength: 27 – 45 (grams/tex)

Wet Strength: 30 – 54 (grams/tex)

• Water, which is very strong polar in nature easily attracted by the polar –OH
groups of the cellulose of cotton fibre.
• Water dipoles H+ and OH- get attached to the secondary valence of cellulose (H-
bonding), which is particularly originated from the alcoholic hydroxyl groups.
• The water can only enter the polymer macromolecule in its amorphous regions
because at the intermolecular spaces of the crystalline regions are too small to
have an access of the water molecules.
• Improved chain alignment in amorphous region increases hydrogen bonds (more
bonds to break means a stronger fiber), hence the strength increases about 5%.
Grading/Classing Cotton
Cotton buyers judge cotton on the basis of samples taken from
the bales. Skilled cotton classers grade or “class” the cotton
according to standards established by the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) such as-
• Cleanliness (Trash Content),
• The degree of whiteness (Color),
• Length of the fiber, and
• Fiber strength.
According to length:
The classer pull a sample. They discard most of the cotton until just a
pinch of well-aligned fibers remains. They measure the length of the
fibers, referred to as staple fibers. Longer staple fibers are higher-grade
cotton and are sold at higher prices.
• Short staple cotton is between 3/8” to 15/16” (.95cm to 2.4cm) in
length
• Medium staple cotton is between 1” to 1-1/8” (2.54cm to 2.86cm) in
length
• Long staple cotton is between 1-3/16” to 2-1/2” (3cm to 6.35cm) in
length
According to Trash Content:
Trash are the impurities which are present in the cotton fibre. (Like leaf, stem,
hulls, bark, seed, mote, grass, sand, dust and oil).

Good Middling (GM)

Strict Middling (SGM)
Middling (M)
Strict Low Middling (SLM)
Low Middling (LM)
Strict Good Ordinary (SGO)
Good Ordinary (SO)
According to Color:
• Normally white in color, white cotton loses its brightness and it
becomes yellowish in nature because of continued exposure to
weathering and the action of microorganism.
• White
• Light Spotted
• Spotted
• Tinged
• Yellow Stained
HVI Color Chart
• HVI Color Chart:
Color grade is determined by Rd and +b Value.
Rd (Degree of reflectance): How bright or dull a sample is!
Ranges from 60 to 80. Higher the value, higher the reflectance.

+b (Yellowness): The degree of pigmentation. Ranges from 6 to

16. Lower the value, lower the yellowness.