Cotton Spinning Properties of Chemically Modified Hemp Fibres

Arshad Ali, Mashiur Rahman, Ying Chen

Abstract: Chemical and enzymatic treatments were carried out to improve the spinning properties of hemp fibres (Cannabis sativa) for cotton spinning systems (CSS). It was found that enzyme treated fibres are not suitable for CSS because this modification process removed the least amount of non-cellulosic materials, however, lost most of the fibre tenacity. Further, enzyme treatment failed to produce essential CSS properties softness and single entity fibres. Among the chemical treatments, bleaching removed the largest amount of non-cellulosic materials and significantly improved the softness property. Although bleaching treatment did not produce 100 % single entity fibre, however, the ease of separation rating showed that these fibres can be separated easily and are suitable for CSS.

Keywords: Spinning properties, Surface modifications, Weight loss %, Softness and single fibre entity