TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF THE SPECIFIC

HEAT OF CELLULOSE FIBRES*

E. Z. FAIl, BERG and N. V. M~KHAILOV

All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Synthetic Fibres
(Received 11 March 1966)

A FAIRLY large number of measurements of specific heats of polymers, dealing

with the study of phase transitions, determination of temperatures, melting
points and glass-transition, have been carried out with crystallizing polymers. No
systematic study has been carried out by measuring the temperature dependence
of the specific heat of cellulose and cellulose fibres.
In addition to the purely practical difficulties arising during the measurement
of the specific heat of highly hydrophilic cellulose fibres, the high glass-transition
temperature of cellulose, exceeding its decomposition temperature, inhibits use
of specific heat data for determination of phase transitions (the main purpose
of the method). This, however, does not exclude the use of the method in the
study of structural features of the polymer; this is, in particular, confirmed by
the results of measurements of the actual specific heat (C,) of cellulose fibres
at room temperature, obtained by the authors [1]. The marked differences in the
specific heats of various kinds of cellulose fibre from aas~retched viscose fibre to
natural ramie fibres show a satisfactory agreement with the views on molecular
chain mobility, e.g. the minimum specific heat corresponds to the ramie fibre
with maximum molecular interaction and the maximum to the unstretched
fibre.
The difference in the degrees of flexibility of molecular chains, according to
specific heat data, are clearly apparent for non-crystallizing polymers and very
slight for crystalline polymers.
Unlike cellulose fibres, the discrepancy between the actual specific heats of
unstretched and stretched polycaproamide fibres is only 1%, which is also typ-
ical of other synthetic fibres.
From a joint investigation into the dependence of the specific heat of cel-
lulose fibres on their moisture contents and heats of solution it was shown that
hydrated cellulose fibres do not crystallize by the effect of moisture and the
phase remains amorphous. The determination of temperature dependence of
specific heat is a continuation of investigations carried out in this field. Results
of measurements should enable the character of structural variations taking

* Vysokomol. soyed. A9: No. 4, 920-926, 1967.

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