Cotton textiles fibre

Of the numerous textile fibres known, relatively few are of commercial importance, the principal ones being cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, jute, wool, silk and artificial silk. These fibres are used to make the different kinds of yarn from which fabrics of various types are woven. 

Description of Fibres of Vegetable Origin.—The most important vegetable textile fibres, which will be described below, are cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, jute, agave, pita and sisal, New Zealand flax, esparto, Manila... 

Distinction between Raw and Bleached Products.—In the raw state, many textile fibres, such as flax, hemp, jute, etc., exhibit a colour quite distinct from white and in these cases the distinction between raw and bleached products is simple and is made by the eye. Other fibres, however, such as those of cotton and wool, are often white in the unbleached state and in such cases the distinction between the raw and bleached products cannot be made by the eye but requires investigation. 

Rybicki E et d., Changes in hazardous substances in cotton after mechanical and chemical treatment of textiles, Fibre and Textiles in Eastern Europe, April/ June, Vol. i2. 

Generally interfacial tension between the textile fibre and the liquor is high, and hence wetting of the fibre surface does not take place quickly. This is particularly true in the case of grey cotton fabric and hydrophobic fibres. One of the main function of the surfactants is to reduce the surface tension and thereby bring about wetting of the surface. 

Cotton is the oldest and the most important of the textile fibres. It has been used in the East and Middle East for thousands of years and was found in use in America when the continent was discovered. Cotton spinning and weaving were at one time Britain s most important industry, and during the last century cotton cloth was her greatest single export. 

DYEING AND CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY OF TEXTILE FIBRES Indian cotton... 

All textile fibres, when immersed in water or aqueous solutions, acquire an electric potential, often referred to as the zeta potential. Its direct measurement has been made by Neale and others Trans. Farad. Soc., 1946, 42, 473, and 1946, 42, 478). Cotton and cellulosic fibres bear a negative charge when immersed in neutral solutions, and the protein fibres are positively charged when the />H values of the aqueous phase are below the isoelectric point, and negatively charged when the pH is higher. 

Ludwigshafen Rhine and Their Application on Wool, Cotton, Silk and Other Textile Fibres, Ludwigshafen, Badische Anilin- Soda-fabrik, 1901. 

Seed fibres from cotton and stem fibres from flax were probably the first to be commonly woven into textiles. Linen (from flax) was the every-day fabric of ancient Egypt, and the plant was the first cultivated source of textile fibres in Europe. While cotton only became popular in Europe a few centuries ago, its... 

Cellulose-based plastics, particularly cellulose nitrate and acetates, were the most commercially important semi-synthetics up to the 1940s and were used as the base for photographic film, textile fibres, moulded goods and in lacquers. Naturally occurring polymer cellulose in the form of cotton linters or wood pulp is chemically treated to increase its solubility. Cellulose has a high molecular weight of between 100000 and 500000 and an empirical formula C0H1OO5. Casein-formaldehyde is the only protein-based moulded plastic that achieved commercial success. It is based on cow s milk and is still produced in very small quantities for specialist items such as hand-coloured buttons. 

The starting point in the textile supply chain is the raw material preparation. Textile fibres are obtained from two main sources natural (cellulose or animal) fibres or synthetic fibres. Natural cellulosic fibres include conventional and organic cottons, rayon, linen, hemp, jute, ramie and sisal. Cotton is used to produce 40% of world textile products (Saicheua et al., 2012). The major environmental concern in cellulosic fibre production, especially for cotton fibre, is the chemical fertilizers and pesticides used during cultivation. The second concern is the high level of water consumption (Dave and Aspegren, 2010 Muthu, 2014). Cotton is one of the most popular natural fibres used in the world. Three percent of the world s cultivated land is used for cotton production and 16% of the world s insecticides are used on this crop alone (Saicheua et al., 2012 Muthu, 2014). Moreover, the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, machinery and electricity causes some human health and environmental problems. Also cotton growing requires 7—29 tonnes of water per kg of raw cotton fibres (KaUiala and Nousiainen, 1999). Other types of cellulosic fibres are hemp and flax, which can be considered to be the most significant sustainable fibres in the non cotton natural fibre sector (Werf, 2004 Muthu, 2014). 

Similarly, global warming potential due to cotton fibre production was compared with other textile fibres by Shen and Patel (2010), as presented in Figure 9.8. It is clear that cotton has the lowest global warming potential (GWP) among the four commercially available fibres shown in the graph. 

From the LCA studies presented in the previous section, it is quite clear that cotton fibres and textiles have significant environmental impacts. It is, therefore, necessary to identify different parameters during the whole life cycle of cotton products influencing different environmental parameters and to follow the suggestions from different LCA studies to reduce the environmental impacts of cotton textiles. 

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, sustainabUity represents the type of developments that meet the needs of present generations without comprising the ability of future generations to fulfil their needs. The use of natural resources and the generated outputs and environmental effects are two important aspects of sustainability. Products or processes that use higher nonrenewable resources as well as produce detrimental effects on the environment are considered to be less sustainable. As discussed in the previous sections, LCA has been used to identify, quantify and evaluate the environmental impacts (inputs and outputs) of products made from cotton textiles and this information can be utilized to determine the sustainability of cotton textiles and to compare that with other textile fibres (Rana et al., 2014a,b). 

According to the World Health Organization, around 20,000 deaths occur in the developing countries due to pesticide poisoning. Many of these deaths are related to the cotton sector (Pal, 2009). With the use of organic cotton, the use of fertilizers can be reduced and pesticide use can be avoided. There are a number of factors that are governing the sustainability of cotton textiles. The factors related to the cultivation of cotton fibre follow in the next sections. 

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