Abstract:

To investigate the moisture absorption property of the seed fibers of the wild Calotropis gigantea (C.gigantea) growing in Yunnan, China, the moisture regain of C.gigantea in standard atmosphere and water absorptive capacity were measured and compared with cotton fiber. The moisture adsorption/desorption curves and the moisture adsorption/desorption rate curves were analyzed. Experiment results articulate that C.gigantea fiber exhibits superior hygroscopicity compared to that of cotton; and under standard atmospheric conditions, the equilibrium moisture regain of C.gigantea is 11.4 %. The hysteresis between the sorption and desorption isotherms of C.gigantea fiber is higher than that of cotton across all relative humidity range. The C.gigantea fiber’s moisture adsorption-desorption behavior can also be described using an exponential model. Its moisture desorption rate and the difference of the moisture absorption and desorption equilibrium time are significantly larger than that of cotton fiber. The hygroscopic capacity and moisture absorption/desorption rate of C.gigantea fibers are higher compared with cotton fibers. Thus, C.gigantea fabric is more wearing comfort than cotton fabric. Both C.gigantea fiber and cotton fiber exhibit poor infiltration property, but the adsorption capacity of C.gigantea fiber, being 133.62 %, is significantly higher compared with cotton (74.98 %). It concludes that fibers extracted from C.gigantea pod can be an ideal source of absorbent materials.