FTIR spectroscopic study of the effect of microwave heating on the transformation of cellulose I into cellulose II during mercerization

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy techniques were used in the study of the effect of microwave (MW) heating on the structural properties of cotton fibers and on the mercerization mechanism of these fibers. Samples of the fibers were microwave heated for different times and different microwave powers. Also, mixtures of cotton fibers and aqueous solution of NaOH with different concentrations were exposed to microwave radiation for different times and different powers. It was found that microwave heating of cotton fibers under these experimental conditions causes no observable changes in their spectral features apart from slight changes in the intensities of the absorption bands. The determined values of the absorbances ratio A1375 cm^?1/A2900 cm^?1 revealed that microwave heating for short periods and at low powers decreases the crystallinity of cotton as the result of the drying effect of microwave heating, while microwave heating for longer periods and at higher power results in recristallyzation of the fibers. The analysis of the experimentally obtained data revealed that microwave heating that causes molecular motions by migration of ions and rotations of the dipoles produces no considerable effects on the mechanism of mercerization but only reduces the concentration of NaOH in the solution and the time of treatment which are needed for the complete transformation of cellulose lattice type I into cellulose lattice type II without any heating. Also it was found that the magnitude of reductions depends on the applied power. Moreover the results proved that the deconvolution and the second derivatives of the FTIR spectra of cotton fibers can be used as a useful tool for distinguishing cellulose lattice type II from cellulose lattice type I. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008