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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #370859
Research Project: Improved Quality Assessments of Cotton from Fiber to Final Products

Location: Cotton Structure and Quality Research

Title: Source of metal ions on raw cotton fibers and their influence on dyeing

Author
item Fortier, Chanel
item Delhom, Christopher - Chris
item Dowd, Michael

Submitted to: American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists Journal of Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/19/2020
Publication Date: 3/17/2021
Citation: Fortier, C.A., Delhom, C.D., Dowd, M.K. 2021. Source of metal ions on raw cotton fibers and their influence on dyeing. American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists Journal of Research. 8(2):1-8. https://doi.org/10.14504/ajr.8.2.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14504/ajr.8.2.1

Interpretive Summary: Many in the textile community believe that cotton fiber metal levels affect how well the fibers take up dye and there is also some thought in the cotton research community that the field conditions during harvesting, e.g. weather and wind events, affect cotton fiber metal levels. To test these beliefs, two sets of experiments were conducted. The first set was to evaluate the metal content of freshly opened bolls and opened bolls that were allowed to stand in the field for three weeks. The second experiment was to scour, bleach and dye a series of different fiber samples and to monitor their metal content to see if the metal levels correlated with the ability of the fiber to take up dye. The results indicated that the opened bolls aged in the field had similar metal levels as the freshly opened bolls. Therefore, weathering did not appear to have a strong effect on the fiber metal levels. Additionally, dye uptake did not appear to be related to the level of metals present on the bleached fibers. The results should be of interest to cotton textile finishers and researchers.

Technical Abstract: Uniformly dyed fabrics are sought after to obtain maximum marketability in the textile and consumer industry. In the current study, cotton bolls opened three weeks apart were investigated to determine the source of their metal content. ANOVA results suggest that metal origin shows no significant differences at p<0.05 level. Calcium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus on cotton fibers in the raw, scoured, and bleached state were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Environmental factors proved to be more influential then varietal. Overall, data show that there is no correlation between scoured, bleached cotton and metals during wet processing suggesting metals may not affect dye uptake.