| Popis: |
Mercerized cotton cellulose has been shown to consist of flexible microfibrils which are similar in dimension to the stiff microfibrils of native cotton. The Mercerized cotton microfibrils are smooth and completely different in appearance from the shish-kebab structures observed by Chanzy and Roche for Mercerized Valonia cellulose. Ultrasonic treatment shows that the Mercerized cotton microfibrils consist of an interconnected fibrous network. The fibrous units comprising this network have widths in the range 20 to 100 A and appear to be very flexible, in contrast to the stiff 35 A wide elementary fibrils found in native cotton. A possible mechanism for the Mercerization of cotton is discussed in terms of the rearrangement of sheets of cellulose chains, resulting in crystallites of extended antiparallel chains. |
