Mercerized Cotton: A Better Buy for Savvy Shoppers

Casual and formal clothing made with 100% cotton has many advantages. It can be worn all year round and is soft and comfortable. Retains body heat in cold weather and absorbs perspiration in hot, humid weather. It is hypoallergenic and is the fabric of choice for people with sensitive skin.

Although clothes made from cotton do wrinkle and shrink, they are easy to care for and can be machine washed. Designer children’s clothing, as well as men’s and women’s designer cotton clothing that have particular finishes, trims, and dyes, can be dry cleaned. The fabric is strong, durable and easy to mend. It drapes smoothly over the body without clinging, and can be printed and dyed in a panoply of colors. These qualities have made cotton the most widely used fabric for making clothes in the world. What could be better?

mercerized cotton

When cotton yarn or fabric is mercerized, some of the above qualities are greatly improved. Clothes made with this cotton have a softer touch and are brighter than conventional ones. As a result of the treatment, it has a higher moisture absorption capacity and is more comfortable to wear in hot and humid climates than conventional cotton. This ability also allows the treated fibers to better absorb and retain dyes and exhibit richer, brighter colors and patterns. Clothing made with mercerized fabric is stronger and more durable, and is less likely to shrink or lose shape or color after multiple washes.

The treatment process generally calls for the use of better quality long staple cotton such as Egyptian, Sea Island or Pima greige to achieve the best results. The latter is one of the reasons why this is one of the favorite fabrics used to make designer clothes for children, as well as for elegant and elegant clothes for men and women. Both the mercerization process and the quality of the raw products used make the product much better and the purchase and value of the clothes better than clothes made with conventional cotton.

What does mercerization do to cotton fiber?

Mercerized cotton is made by briefly immersing pretreated (singed, degreased, bleached, etc.) cotton threads or cotton cloth in a strong solution of sodium hydroxide under tension and then washing the thread or cloth clean. This chemical treatment modifies and improves the physicochemical surface and the internal structure of the cotton fibers.

Mercerizing under tension causes the cotton fibers to swell irreversibly. This swelling causes the flat, twisted, bean-shaped fibers to uncoil and become permanently cylindrical, straight, and nearly circular like a tube. Cross sections of cotton fiber can increase by up to 50%. As cell walls swell, the exposed surface area of ​​the cell wall and the size of the pores in the cell wall increase significantly. In addition, the fibrous secondary cell walls and cell contents become more solid, gelatinous, and translucent. These physical changes are directly related to the increased brightness, strength, durability and affinity of the cotton fiber for moisture and dyes.

Unlike the flat, twisted shape of conventional cotton fibers, the smooth, rounded cylindrical shape of swollen cotton fibers (made under tension) is similar to thousands of polished surfaces that receive and reflect light. And with a new jelly-like, translucent interior that prevents light absorption, the soft round reflective cotton fibers take on a lustrous sheen.

As the fibers swell and unwind during the mercerizing process, the previously twisted fibers relax and soften. Simultaneously with swelling, the cellular material within the fibers becomes more compact. This change strengthens the cotton fiber making it better able to resist stretching and tearing and makes it more durable and able to hold its shape.

The mercerization process alters the fiber so that it absorbs more water at the surface of the expanded crystalline cell wall and absorbs more water in the spaces within the fiber through the enlarged pores. With this modification, the mercerized fiber absorbs more perspiration and improves wearing comfort. Also, dyes are more easily absorbed.

making color penetration more durable and pronounced than in conventional cotton.

Why buy?

Thanks to the discovery of the basic process by John Mercer more than a century and a half ago, today we can enjoy this luxurious fabric that makes cotton clothing more comfortable to wear, more attractive, more durable, of higher quality and more easy to care than common cotton. dresses. Although it tends to be more expensive than ordinary cotton garments, it is a better buy for savvy shoppers.