| Abstract: | The role of aqueous alkali solutions as swelling agents of cotton cellulose has been studied by various workers and these reagents have been invariably considered to cause lattice disorder in cellulose. The effect of multiple swelling treatments on the cotton cellulose structure has not been studied hitherto. The present study on cotton demonstrates that is the concentration of the swelling agents and the conditions at the time of treatment which determine the resultant order in the final product. The resultant lattice order so attained is shown to be far in excess of any observed in either native or regenerated celluloses or even their hydrolyzed products, with complete retention of their fibrous form. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy data show conclusively that fibrillar “aggregation” or their “dispersion” can be effectively controlled and are the results of the soda cellulose complexes which form upon alkali treatments. The role of water vis-á-vis the formation of cellulose II is extensively discussed. Studies on sorption and tensile properties of the treated samples lend support to the phenomenon of fibrillar aggregation in cellulosic fibers. |
