Textile Fiber II (Tex-229)

4. Viscose rayon fiber

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Introduction
● Viscose is the naturally regenerated cellulosic fibre.
● can be made from naturally occurring cellulosic based material.
Such as cotton, linters, wood pulp.
● It can be found in cotton like end uses as well as silk like end uses .
● In 1924, a committee formed by the U.S. Department of Commerce
and various commercial associations decided upon the name
"rayon" for "Artificial Silk".
● It was called "rayon" for one of two reasons: either because of its
brightness and similarities in structure with cotton (sun = ray, on =
cotton).
● The name Viscose was derived from the word “viscous” which
means sticky spinning solution out of which “Rayon” was
manufactured.
● Thus the innovative cellulosic derivative has taken the present name
of “Viscose rayon”

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Characteristics of viscose
● Highly absorbent
● Soft and comfortable
● Easy to dye
● Drapes well
● Versatile
● It does not shrink when heated
● It is bio degradable

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Flow chart of Viscose fiber production

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Purification of Cellulose

● Trees are cut into pieces.

● These pieces are cooked with a solution of calcium
bisulphate [Ca (HSO3)2] under pressure for 14 Hrs.
● The lignin material present in the wood is converted
into sulphonated compound. This sulphonated
compound is soluble in water.
● After cooking wood with calciurn bisulphate large
amount of water is added. When cellulose pulp floats
on water it is then sucked.
● Then this sucked slurry of cellulose is treated with
bleaching agent. Which is finally converted into
paperboards or sheets.
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Conditioning

● Cellulose sheets/paperboards are kept in a

room at a definite temperature and
humidity for a sufficient time.
● When they absorb a definite amount of
moisture from the air by storing the sheets
under controlled conditions
● it is possible to take a known weight of
cellulose for manufacturing of viscose
rayon.

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Steeping and Pressing

● In this process, white sheets of board containing 90-94% pure

cellulose are soaked in a 17.5 % caustic soda for one to four hours.
This process is known as steeping or mercerizing.
● The boards become greatly swollen and the hemicellulose dissolves
in the caustic soda.
● Here cellulose is simultaneously converted into soda cellulose. The
excess caustic soda liquor along with dissolved hemi cellulose is
removed by pressing.
● This then transferred to shredding machine for the next operation.

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Shredding & Ageing

● The soda cellulose is mechanically shredded to make

the cellulose easier to process.
● This shredded cellulose is often referred to as “white
crumb”.
● After shredding, the crumbs are aged. Ageing is done to
improve the spinning qualities of the solutions.
● The crumbs delivered by shredding process are stored
in a galvanized vessel with a lid for about 48 hours at
230C.
● Through the oxidation with atmospheric oxygen,
degradative changes set in.
● Some depolymerisation occurs, and degree of
polymerization falls from 1000 to 300 (350 in some
cases) in this process.
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Churning/Xanthation

● This process is also called as Xanthation or Sulpholising.

● After ageing process crumbs of-soda cellulose are transferred to
rotating airtight hexagonal churners (mixers).
● Carbon disulphide is added to the mixer and churned together for
3Hrs. by rotating the mixer at a slow speed i.e. 2rpm.
● In this process soda cellulose xanthate is formed and color of the
product changes from white to light yellow to deep blue and then to
reddish orange.
● After churning is over vacuum is applied to remove the ill smelling
vapours of carbon disulphide from the mixer.

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Dissolving/Mixing

● In the mixers the sodium cellulose xanthate is

stirred with dilute caustic soda solution for four to
five hours, the vessel being cooled. The xanthate
dissolves to a clear-brown, viscous liquid similar
in appearance to honey.
● The soda cellulose Xanthate dissolves to give a
clear brown thick liquor, which is called as
viscose.
● Filtration is also done to remove undissolved
portion from the wood pulp. During stirring air gets
entrapped in the solution. Hence degassing is
also carried out to remove entrapped air.
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Ripening

● Viscose solutions require to be ripened to give

a solution having the best spinning qualities.
● The viscose solution is stored for 2 to 5 days at
10-18oC and during storage it ripens.
● Viscosity of the solution initially decreases and
then rises to get original value.
● Ripened solution is again filtered to remove
undissolved materials that might disrupt the
spinning process or cause defects in the rayon
filament.

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 Spinning
● The spinning solution is kept at 40-450C, sodium sulphate coagulates
or precipitates the dissolved sodium cellulose Xanthate
● Sulphuric acid converts Xanthate into cellulose glucose and gives
softness and pliability to the filament.
● In spinning process ripened viscose solution is forced by compressed
air to spinning frame.
● From spinning frame it is distributed to different spinning units. And
spinning solutions is discharged from nozzles to a spinning bath.
● As a number of filaments emerge from the spinneret they are taken
together to an eye at the surface of the spinning bath and then guided
to two rollers.
● Spinning bath contains chemicals which are represented in Table 1

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Reactions involved

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Chemical reactions for viscose production

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Chemical Structure :
● Chemical structure is like as cotton. i.e
cellulose , but the polymer chain are
much shorter.

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 Identification
Microscopic view : 2. Cross-Sectional View

⮚ Irregular with a serrated

1.Longitudinal View: outline
🠶 Normal type fairly dense ⮚ Oval or round
longitudinal striations or
fine line
🠶 Special type-may be
smooth and Structure less

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Physical properties of viscose as compared to cotton

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Chemical properties of viscose
● Acids like H2SO4, HCL breaks the cellulose to
hydrocellulose.
● Oxidising agents like Na(OCL)2, bleaching
powder, K2Cr2O7,KMnO4, form oxycellulose.
● Cold acid solution for a short time do not attack
viscose

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End uses

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 Thanks to all

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