Cotton maturity determination

Fiber samples collected from the various textile plants were tested by the NIR and microscopic methods. The relationship between the two sets of data is shown in Figure 25.11, where agreement was excellent with =. 97. NIR cotton maturity tests were performed on four varieties of cotton during their various stages of growth as illustrated in Table 25.5. This method of determining cotton maturity provides a technique for textile manufacturing to quickly detect cotton samples that could create quality problems in textile products. 

There are many publications on the subject of neps and their detection, for example Furter and Frey, "and on the determination of the degree of maturity of cotton. " Here, only the principle of the so-called rcd/grccn test will be briefly described, since it is easy to carry out in any textile laboratory - and it gives a quick idea of the proportion of immature cotton. It does not correlate well with other tests of maturity.On the other hand, cotton samples which show the same degree of maturity after the usual maturity test with the air-flow method often show subsequent differences in depth of dyeing,thus underlining the importance of this dyeing test. 

The spatial arrangement of elementary fibrils and larger aggregates determines the morphology and properties of a fibre and in maturing cotton the arrangement of these structural units differs, depending on the state of fibre development. 

Thibodeaux, D. P., and Price, J. B., Reference method for determining maturity of cotton fibers, Melliand Textilberlechte, 4/1989, E95-96. 

The aim of the present study is to determine by XPS the chemical surface characteristics of different types of cotton fibers and to compare these characteristics with thermodynamic surface properties (surface energy) of the fibers, previously determined by means of inverse gas chromatography (IGC) at infinite dilution[3,4] Three types of cotton fibers of different varieties and exhibiting different maturities and wax contents are analyzed as received (raw fibers) or after having been extracted (extracted fibers) in hot ethanol for 6h. These results are compared with those previously obtained by inverse gas chromatography analysis. 

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