Effects on Cotton Fiber of Treating Seed Cotton with Mercerizing-Strength Sodium Hydroxide

Abstract

Seed cotton samples from two replications of 22 entries of a yield trial were treated with mercerizing-strength sodium hydroxide. The Micronaire reading was increased substantially, length was reduced somewhat, ¹/₈-gauge fiber tenacity was increased slightly, and fiber-bundle elongation was doubled. Skein tenacity of yarns spun from the mercerized fibers was lower than the skein tenacity of yarns spun from untreated specimens. Single-strand breaking force was also lower for the yarns spun from mercerized fibers, but the yarn elongation was 34 percent greater. Factors that contributed to the changes in yarn tenacity and elongation are uneven drafting of the mercerized fibers, the change in shape of fibers resulting in less specific surface and less fiber-to-fiber contact, and an increase in linear density resulting in fewer fibers per cross section of yarn.