Viscose rayon filaments and cotton fibers were treated with dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea(DMDHEU). The cotton was also slack mercerized before DMDHEU application. At a given DMDHEU content the water retention values of the viscose rayon and merceriz...
Viscose rayon filaments and cotton fibers were treated with dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea(DMDHEU). The cotton was also slack mercerized before DMDHEU application. At a given DMDHEU content the water retention values of the viscose rayon and mercerized cotton were roughly the same, even though their fine structures differed. Their water retention values were higher also than that of the nonmercerized cotton. The tenacity of the nonmercerized and mercerized cotton fell with increasing DMDHEU content whereas that of the viscose rayon increased initially. These results are attributed to different fracture mechanisms due to the dissimilarities in fine structure and morphology of the fibers. For all three fibers the breaking twist angel(BTA) increased with increasing DMDHEU content. It is suggested that the mechanism of rupture in this case is similar for all three fibers. For the same BTA value, the toughness of the viscose rayon fibers appeared to be higher than those of cotton or mercerized cotton.