Correlation between structure and adsorption characteristics of oriented polymers

In a more or less swollen state the methods by which the fiber structure is determined provide more realistic information about their properties and structure in wet conditions, because of the swelling and alteration of fiber structure. These results, however, of sorption analyses are very rarely in accordance with those obtained from structural analyses. One such "wet" method is the iodine sorption test. The iodine sorption test was originally proposed by Schwertassek [1] and since then has been constantly modified by other researchers [2-7]. In this presented work the correlation between different structural parameters, iodine sorption (ISV) and conventional sorption analyses (water vapor sorption and water retention power) of polyamide 6 (PA 6) and cellulose fibers was studied. The results demonstrate that the iodine sorption value best correlates with the degree of crystallinity and the perfection of the crystalline phase of both polyamide and cellulose fibers. The correlation is linear.