Why can absorbent cotton show unique advantages in many fields?

As a product of cotton fiber after specific degreasing treatment, absorbent cotton plays a vital role in many fields. To understand the unique value of absorbent cotton, we need to start with its core degreasing process.

Although natural cotton fiber has many advantages such as skin-friendly and comfortable, environmentally friendly and harmless, its internal structure is rich in fructose, wax, protein, fat and various impurities. These impurities seem small, but they have an impact that cannot be ignored in the subsequent processing and production process. During fiber processing, wax will reduce the friction between fibers, making it difficult for the fibers to be tightly combined, and the presence of impurities such as protein and fat will interfere with the uniform arrangement of fibers, resulting in unstable quality and substandard performance when the products are made later. For example, in the textile process, impurities may cause uneven yarn thickness. In the production of non-woven fabrics, it affects the quality of fiber webs, which greatly hinders the further application of cotton fibers in the industrial field.

Degreasing treatment is the key to solving these problems. The degreasing process usually adopts a chemical treatment method, using specific chemical reagents, such as strong alkaline solutions, to react chemically with impurities in cotton fibers under certain temperature and time conditions. Wax undergoes saponification reaction under the action of alkali solution, decomposing into water-soluble fatty acid salts and glycerol, and thus being removed; organic matter such as protein and fat is also hydrolyzed in an alkaline environment, becoming small molecules, and is separated from the cotton fibers through subsequent processes such as water washing. This process is like a deep cleaning of the cotton fibers, which not only removes impurities on the surface and inside, but also purifies the fiber structure. The cellulose fibers originally wrapped by impurities are fully exposed, and the active groups such as hydroxyl groups inside are fully displayed, which changes the chemical properties of the fiber surface and significantly enhances the hydrophilicity. This improvement in hydrophilicity opens up a new path for subsequent product processing.

Degreased cotton has become the main raw material for the production of cotton non-woven fabrics due to its pure fiber characteristics. In the non-woven fabric production process, degreased cotton fibers can be evenly distributed and interwoven with each other to form a stable fiber network structure due to their good dispersibility and processability. Cotton non-woven fabrics inherit many advantages of absorbent cotton and shine in the field of medical and health care. In the production of disposable masks, cotton non-woven fabrics are used as the core filter layer and outer layer materials, and their good air permeability and filtration performance play an important role. The hydrophilicity of absorbent cotton enables non-woven fabrics to effectively absorb exhaled water vapor, while blocking dust, droplets and other particles in the air, providing users with comfortable and effective protection. In the manufacture of sanitary wipes, cotton non-woven fabrics are used as carriers for cleaning liquids. The pure structure of absorbent cotton will not react adversely with the chemical components in the cleaning liquid, ensuring that the cleaning liquid can work stably and bring a gentle cleaning experience to the skin.
The advantages of absorbent cotton are not only reflected in the fields of medical and health care and daily care, but also have broad application prospects in other industrial and civil fields. Its unique performance after degreasing provides a solid foundation for product innovation and performance improvement. With the continuous optimization and improvement of the process, absorbent cotton will surely play its unique value in more fields and continue to promote the development and progress of related industries.