Structural Peculiarities of G. Herbaceum Cottons

Abstract

Structural features, viz, the fihrillar orientation, void space, micropores and ordered-disordered regions of Indian G. herbaceum cottons have been compared with those of American G. hirsutum cottons of comparable maturity range. Convolution angle and birefringence were determined and correlated with fiber bundle strength. The likely reasons for the lack of correlation between convolution angle and strength in the case of herbaceum cottons are given. The total void space determined from propanol-2 retention and alkali centrifuge value was of the same order in both the groups of cotton for a given maturity. However, the micropores of hirsutum cotton cell wall are of larger size as compared to the herbaceum cotton as indicated by high absorption of Carbolan Violet 2 RS, a large size molecule dye. Moisture regain values of cottons before and after acid hydrolysis showed that herbaceum cotton absorbed more moisture indicating it has more disordered region and smaller crystallites as compared to hirsutum cotton.