Effect of Crosslinking Treatment on the Crystallinity, Crystallite Size, and Strength of Cotton Fibers

In this paper, cotton fibers and their fabric are treated with butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) with the catalyst sodium hypophosfite (SHP) at different concentrations of treating agent and different curing temperatures. Results show that low curing temperatures and low agent concentrations have a slight effect on the reduction of crystallinity and crystallite size, but when the curing temperature is higher than 180°C and the BTCA concentration is higher than 6%, crystallite size and crystallinity decrease significantly. This may be ascribed to the acidic erosion of the surface of the crystals at high temperatures. An initial slight crystallinity loss induces high strength loss in the fabric. This is perhaps due to the initial slight reduction of crystallinity, which causes serious interfacial binding strength losses between the crystals and the amorphous regions.