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Thermally induced microstructural changes in cotton fibers: A free‐volume study
Author(s) -
Ranganathaiah C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.11285
Subject(s) - glass transition , materials science , annealing (glass) , amorphous solid , atmospheric temperature range , activation energy , polymer , composite material , dissociation (chemistry) , positron , natural fiber , branching (polymer chemistry) , polymer chemistry , bond dissociation energy , thermodynamics , fiber , crystallography , chemistry , nuclear physics , physics , electron
I measured positron lifetime in natural polymer–cotton fibers as a function of isochronal annealing temperature in the range 27–290°C. The variations in the positron results indicated structural changes occurring in the cotton fibers and determined the glass‐transition temperature as 80°C. Activation energies were measured separately for the crystalline and amorphous regions, indicating the versatility of the technique. These values were close to the OH bond dissociation energy, suggesting OH bond dissociation, the most probable process occurring under thermal treatment. As an extension of the positron results, the molecular weight of the cotton fibers was determined to be 1,200,000 based on free volume, which was within the range suggested for cotton. There seemed to be an indication that crosslinking changed the spiral structure of cotton fibers to the network type. However, this needs to be validated by other measurements. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 3336–3345, 2002