Crystallite Orientation in Natural Cellulose Fibers

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Abstract
Experimental methods are described for measuring the azimuthal intensity distribution of the 040 meridional reflection from cellulose fibers. The recording of the profile has been carried out with a tilted fiber diffractometer. Methods are given for correcting the recorded profile for the effect of other contaminating reflections which happen to be at nearly the same Bragg angle. The results so obtained for ramie and a number of cottons are compared quantitatively with the azimuthal profiles of the 002 equatorial diffraction from these fibers by making use of the Kratky formula. It is shown that the details of the spiral structure of cotton are more clearly brought out in the 040 profile than in that of the 002 reflection. The Kratky formula does not appear to hold good for cottons. It is shown that the usual practice of estimating the degree of orientation of the b-axis of crystallites from equatorial profiles can give rise to misleading results.