Structure of cotton fibers shattered by dry method

Abstract

Cotton fiber was shattered by a rotor mill with different sieve meshes in order to develop new applications of cotton resources. The fiber was readily pulverized in dry state by this method.
The fiber length and the surface properties of the shattered fibers were found to depend on the sieve size of the ring mesh. When the sieve size was over 0.2mm, the specific surface area and porosity increased inversely proportional to the sieve size. However, when the sieve size was 0.08mm, both values decreased abruptly, and the fiber surface was carbonized. The zeta-potential of the fibers decreased with decreasing sieve size, indicating that the acidic functinal groups had been introduced to the fiber surface with some decrease in crystallinity because of the increased heat of friction for the smaller sieve size.
It was suggested that the surface characters and the fiber form can be varied by this dry shattering method so as to control their dispersion behaviors in solution and polymer melt.