A Thermoanalytical (DSC) Study of the Effect of Inorganic Salts in Cotton

This work supports a recently reported differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) method for discriminating between washed and unwashed cotton fibers. The discrim inating property is an exotherm found in the DSC curve of unwashed cotton heated in an inert atmosphere, and not in water-washed cotton. The cottons used in this work were grown in five different locations in southern Africa and all gave similar results. In addition, this work identifies an acid phosphate anion as being responsible for the DSC exotherm.