Thermogravimetric measurement of amorphous cellulose content in flax fibre and flax pulp

Usually the raw material for flax pulp production is a blend which contains fibres and shives. In order to better understanding the structure of these materials and the effects of flax pulping, X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetry analysis under air atmosphere have been used. There was a significant effect of the fibre size on the composition, crystallinity, and thermal behaviour of the flax pulps. On the other hand, data obtained from thermogravimetric analysis have been modelled on the basis of two cellulose types characterized by different crystallinity levels, using kinetics equations based on the nucleation concept. As a result of these simulations, composition of the samples, pulp crystallinity and the proportion of amorphous cellulose are calculated.