Degradation of viscose fibers during acidic treatment

Novel developments in the fiber sector require additional investigation of their behaviour during the production process. In the core step of the viscose process, cellulose fibres are regenerated in an acidic spinning bath. To investigate the influence of hemicellulose content and temperature on the kinetics of fiber degradation, standard and hemicellose-enriched fibers were treated in the acidic standard spinning bath for time periods up to 292 h. Viscose samples of different hemicellulose content were prepared under standardized conditions and the never dried fibres were subjected to long term degradation in the standard spinning bath at 40, 50 and 60 A degrees C. The changes in the degree of polymerization (DP), molar mass distribution, hemicellulose and the generation of the total organic carbon in the spinning bath were monitored. Further, the changes in crystallinity and the level-off-DP of the fibers were determined to improve the accuracy of the existing degradation model. Changes in morphology of the fibers were monitored by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.