Studies on Chemically Modified Cotton Fabrics : Part I-Chemical and Physical Properties of Hydrocellulose and Peroxide and Hypochlorite Oxycelluloses

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:" calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:="" "times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-theme-font:="" minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;="" mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">Three chemically modified cotton fabrics, viz. hydrocellulose, peroxide oxycellulose and hypochlorite oxycellulose having comparable DPn values in the range 1800-600 were prepared and their chemical and physical characteristics were studied. From the assessment of chemical properties, it is found that (i) hydrocellulose possesses high contents of aldehyde groups, predominantly of the reducing type, with low carboxyI and moderately high carbonyl groups, (ii) peroxide oxycellulose possesses moderate contents of reducing aldehyde groups and moderately high caboxyl and carbonyl groups, (iii) hypochlorite oxycellulose possesses very high contents of carboxyl groups along with the high non-reducing type of aldehyde groups and slightly low contents of carbonyl groups. The resilience properties of these chemically modified cotton fabrics are comparable and are also not affected by decrease in DPn value. Evaluation of strength-abrasion properties at different DPn levels shows that cotton fabric modified with sodium hypochlorite gives best performance at all DPn values, while the other two are comparable, The rate of fall in the strength-abrasion properties with decreasing DPn values is minimum for peroxide oxycellulose followed by hypochlorite oxycellulose and maximum for hydro cellulose.</span>