44—the Molecular Architecture of Cotton Cellulose

A study of the structure of cotton fibres is described, the objective being to determine whether differences in properties between cotton types can be attributed to differences in structure, primarily at the molecular or supramolecular level of organization. It is concluded that there are no obvious differences in the nature of the crystallographic units or the supramolecular ‘crystalline aggregates’ between cotton varieties and that the observed differences in mechanical properties must have been due to the arrangement of these units (e.g., orientation) or to differences at higher levels of structural organization.