The Dependence of Stiffness and Strength of Gossypium hirsutum Cotton on Crystallite Orientation

The crystallite orientation angle obtained from x-ray diffraction patterns can be used for varietal characterization of cotton at the molecular level. The 40 and 50% x-ray angles are usually taken as representative parameters to correlate with the strength of the fiber. Although the 50% x-ray angle has some theoretical justification, like the use of the half-width of spectral lines, the choice of the 40% x-ray angle is arbitrary. From the study of 24 Gossypium hirsulum cotton varieties reported in this paper, it is observed that the average angle of orientation α m evaluated from the Hermans orientation factor f c gives better correlations with mechanical properties than the 40 and 50% x-ray angles con ventionally used.