Effect of enzymatic treatment on cotton fiber dissolution in NaOH/urea solution at cold temperature

In this communication, the dissolution behavior of enzyme pretreated cotton fibers in NaOH/urea solution is reported. The experimental results indicated that although the crystallinity of cotton linter almost did not change during the enzymatic pretreatment, the solubility of cellulose in cold NaOH/urea solution increased from 30% for original cotton fibers to 65% for enzymatic treated fibers, which was mainly attributed to the reduction of cellulose’s molecular weight by the enzymatic treatment. Moreover, the dissolution time was also greatly shortened by the enzymatic pretreatment. The results suggest that the effect of crystallinity of the cellulose on the cellulose dissolution in NaOH/urea solution is much less than that of molecular weight. It was found that the temperature plays a dominating role to the cellulose fiber solubility in NaOH/urea solution.