Never-Dried Cotton Fibers

Abstract

New data are presented illustrating the high intrinsic mobility within never-dried cotton fibers. This is shown both from a morphological point of view where a unique form of necking is found on fracture, and from a molecular point of view where the transport properties (sorption and diffusion) are found to be irrecoverable once the first drying has occurred. Contrary to generally accepted ideas, never-dried fibers are found to be highly crystalline and on either drying or stretching interfibrillar hydrogen bonding takes place irreversibly.