Professional Documents
Culture Documents
7, 983-992 (1969)
Synopsis
Interferometric studies have been made on cotton fibers as well as on twisted nylon
filaments. The results so obtained provide strong evidence that the fibrils in the cotton
fiber become less inclined to the fiber axis as one proceeds from the surface to the core.
Also, studies on twisted nylon filaments by the fiber refractometer and Becke line tech-
niques indicate that the latter, as practiced in this laboratory, does give values of refrac-
tive index which are heavily weighted towards the fiber periphery.
INTRODUCTION
The well-known fiber refractometer of Freeman and Preston' has been
improved in the authors' laboratory so that its scope can be extended to
cover variable natural fibers such as cotton.2 By using this improved in-
strument, i t becomes possible to measure the mean value of each refractive
index in a parallel pad of fibers. An estimate can also be made of the
variability in the refractive index among fibers or length elements within
fibre^.^ The results obtained on cotton differed in two respects from
those obtained by earlier workers who used the Becke line m e t h ~ d . ~ . ~
The extraordinary refractive index n and consequently the birefringence
A n were higher; the variability in refractive index also appeared to be more
than could be surmised from B e c k line results which indicate next to no
variability. By following the a r g ~ m e n t ~ofs Preston et al.,6J these differ-
ences were tentatively attributed to the differences between the surface
and the interior of the fiber. The Beckr line method gives an estimate of
the refractive index near the fiber surface, while the refractometer result
represents some sort of average through all the layers of the fiber. Since
cotton has a spiral s t r u c t ~ r eand
~ * ~the fibrils in the inner layers may be
more oriented than those along the surface, the refractometer value for the
extraordinary refractive index could be higher than the Becke line result.
The higher variability of refractive index could likewise be due to vari-
ations among individual fibers in the spiral arrangement of fibrils from the
surface to the core, to which the refractometer is sensitive. However, these
explanations are questionable in the light of other earlier work. li'aust1°
has adduced reasons to believe that the Becke line refractive indices are
983
984 KRISHNA, IYER, NEELAKANTAN, RADHAKRISHNAN
EXPERIMENTAL
Samples
The fibers studied were ramie, cotton, and filaments of viscose and nylon.
Eight varieties of cotton were chosen on the basis of x-ray angle to repre-
sent a large spread in orientation. The viscose and nylon filaments were
included since they were fibers with no spiral structure, lumen, etc. How-
ever, certain experiments were conducted with nylon filaments twisted so
as to simulate a spiral structure. Full particulars of the method and the
extent of twisting will be given later.
Measurements by the Refractometer
The details of measurement are fully described in earlier papers2s3
and will not be repeated here. It will only be remarked that the samples
were in the form of a pad of highly parallelized fibers immersed in a "match-
ing" liquid and illuminated by polarized, collimated white light. The
irradiated portion consisted of about 1 cm length of the pad consisting of
a few thousand fibers. Prior to immersion, the samples were conditioned
a t 65% R H and during measurement, the temperature was controlled
within 30 f 0.1"C.
Measurements by the Becke Line Method
Contrary to the usual practice, as many as a hundred fibers were ex-
amined by this method. A somewhat elaborate procedure3 was used to
estimate not only the mean, but the coefficient of variation (CV) of the
refractive index. Fibers used for this measurement were also conditioned
a t 65% R H and tested a t 30°C.
to bring the plates into parallelism. The interferometer was held with the
plates vertical and illuminated a t normal incidence by a parallel beam of
white light from a tungsten filament lamp. A microscope objective com-
bined with a projection eyepiece cast a magrufied image of the fiber, which
was immersed in the liquid in the interferometer gap. The image was re-
ceived on the slit of a prism spectrograph. The fiber was so mounted that
the fiber axis was perpendicular to the length of the slit. The entire op-
tical system was mounted on a precision optical bench. Strips of metal
foil were placed between the interferometer plates to prevent any jamming
of the fiber while adjusting the tilting screws. No auxiliary temperature
control for the int,erferomet,er was incorporat>ed,as the purpose of the ex-
periment was to det,ect local variat8ionsin the refractive index of the fiber
rather than to det,ermine its absolute value. The sufficient requirement
was the constancy of temperat,ure of the fiber and the ambient liquid (mix-
ture of a-bromonaphthalene arid liquid paraffin) during the photography
of the fringe pat,t,ern. This could be achieved by controlling the room
temperature.
TABLE I
Results of Refractive Index Measurements (58'33 .k)
CV, yo of n by
Becke line Refractometer refractometer
__ -
Sample ni I An 4n
Viscose 1 .d.i2 1 ,512 0.040 1.S.il 1 ..ill 0.040 0.1 0.1
Nylon 1 ..i86 1 . ,527 0.0.i9 1 ,586 1 . ,726 0 060 0.2 0.1
Ramie 1 . XI9 1 .,729 0.070 1 . .509 1 .329 0.070 0.2 0 .1
Cottons
Hopi Acala 1 .5x2 1,529 0.053 1.588 1 .-5% 0 ,031 0.4 0.3
Jarila 1 . .%3 1.530 0.053 1.588 1 .529 0.0.59 0.5 0.4
Deltapine 1 -579 1.530 0.049 1 .,585 1 ,530 0.055 0 ..5 0.3
Giza-45 1 ,583 1.532 0,051 1 ,586 1 . .532 0 .0.2 0.6 0.4
Bobshaw 1 . .i77 1.532 0.045 1.582 1 ..5:30 0.05'2 0.7 0.4
Acala P18C 1 .57.5 1.533 0.042 1 ,584 1. ,533 0.0.51 0.7 0.4
Watson Mebane 1 .,573 1.533 0.040 1 ,581 I ,532 0,049 0.8 0.5
Swollen cottons
Jarila NaOH 1.562 1 ,524 0,038 1.564 1 ,522 0.042 0.4 0.3
Swollen slack
Jarila EI)A 1 ,573 1 .52.i 0.048 1 ,377 1 ,523 0.054 0.5 0.4
Swollen slack
CET,LULOSIC FIBERS 987
TABLE I1
Results of Observations on Untwisted and Twisted Nylon Filaments
Twist
angle Surface
on the refractive Becke Line Refractometer C.V., yo of
surface index rill by
(02) hl) n1 I ni An nI I ni An refractometer
0 1.586 1.586 1.527 0.059 1.586 1.526 0.060 0.2
37.5 1.564 1.568 1.530 0.038 1.577 1.527 0.050 0.4
CELLULOSIC FIRERS 989
Results of Interferometry
As described earlier, transmission interference fringes of equal chromatic
order14were obtained by passing collimated, polarized white light through
slightly transmitting glass plates between which the fiber and a matching
liquid were sandwiched. Photographs of these fringes are shown in Figures
1 and 2 . I n the case of glass and nylon, t,he fringes are exactly similar to
those described by earlier w ~ r k e r s . ~ The
~ J ~ fringes inside the fiber are
straight and continuous with those inside the liquid in the region of the
matching wavelength (marked B). Thus the refractive index is homo-
geneous across the fiber. On either side of this wavelength, the fringes
bulge towards the middle of the fiber on account of increased path length.
The situation changes slightly with ramie and markedly with cotton and
twisted nylon. The shape of the fringe can be explained in terms of optical
heterogeneity of the fiber from the surface to the core. Figure 3 shows a
heterogeneous fiber with a n idealized circular cross section. It is assumed
that the refractive index of a fiber element increases progressively from the
edge to the center. Different segments of the fiber, such as K , L, M in
99 0 KRISHNA. IYER. NEELAKAhTAN. RADHAKRISHNAN
Fig. 1. Fringes of equal chromatic order formed by ( a ) glass, ( b ) nylon, and ( c ) ramie, for
light vibrating parallel to the fiber axis (positive print).
Fig. 2 . Fringes of equal chromatic order formed by ( a ) twisted nylon and ( b ) and (c)
cotton, for light vibrating parallel to the fiber axis (negative print).
CELLULOSIC FIBERS 991
(b)
4 Fibre region
towards the edges. This condition will not be fulfilled by typical cotton
cross sections, which approximate to hollow fiattened ellipses. A mature
and nearly circular fiber from a coarse species, such as Bengals, shows the
effect best.
CONCLUSIONS
The difference between Becke line measurements and refractometric
measurements of the extraordinary refractive index of cotton can be ex-
plained on the basis that the fibrils in cotton are more inclined towards the
fiber axis as one goes away from the core of the fiber. Interferometric
studies of the fiber are also in full agreement with this hypothesis. The
optical effects of spiral structure in cotton can be well simulated by a twisted
nylon filament.
The authors thank the Director of ATIltA for permission to publish this paper.
References
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Received November 18, 1968