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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 #359683
Research Project: Improved Quality Assessments of Cotton from Fiber to Final Products

Location: Cotton Structure and Quality Research

Title: Investigation of fiber maturity measurement by cross-sectional image analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy on developing and developed upland cottons

Author
item Liu, Yongliang
item Kim, Hee-Jin
item Delhom, Christopher - Chris
item THIBODEAUX, DEVRON - Fiber Physics

Submitted to: Cellulose
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/2019
Publication Date: 6/3/2019
Citation: Liu, Y., Kim, H.-J., Delhom, C.D., Thibodeaux, D. 2019. Investigation of fiber maturity measurement by cross-sectional image analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy on developing and developed upland cottons. Cellulose. 26:5865-5875. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02502-0.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02502-0

Interpretive Summary: Cotton fiber maturity is a major yield component and also an essential fiber chemical and quality attribute, which is directly related with fiber breakage and entanglement during mechanical processing and dye uptake in dyed yarn and fabric products. Its measurement is performed by the cross-sectional image analysis method, which is a fiber maturity reference standard but the analytical process is time consuming and tedious. To meet a growing need for measuring fiber maturity rapidly and routinely, the use of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy technique was attempted. The result revealed a consistence and equivalency between two maturity measurements on two diverse fiber sets. The observation provides cotton fiber researchers a new insight of measuring fiber maturity.

Technical Abstract: Cotton fiber maturity is an important fiber chemical and quality property that impacts downstream fiber processing. Fiber maturity refers to the degree of secondary cell wall thickening. The reference method for fiber maturity measurement is to quantify the secondary cell wall area relative to the perimeter of the fiber via cross-sectional image analysis, a tedious and slow process. A number of approaches have been developed which attempt to measure fiber maturity rapidly. The approach employed in this work is the use of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, where simple algorithms were developed from the spectra to estimate fiber maturity directly. To validate the efficacy of this approach against cross-sectional image analysis, two distinct fiber sets were examined that included a set of developing fibers and a diverse set of developed fibers. Comparison of image analysis and infrared maturity results imply a consistency and equivalency between the two maturity measurements. The results not only could provide cotton scientists an alternative tool for measuring fiber maturity, but also could serve as an independent tool for verifying fiber maturity measurements from other current-in-use systems.