History and properties of Rayon fiber

History of rayon fiber

Rayon fiber is the earliest regenerated fiber that was first patented in 1855 by the Swiss chemist Georges Audemars. It was also called artificial silk. An English chemist named Sir Joseph Swan, inspired by Thomas Edison's incandescent electric lamp to make filaments for electric light, tested the Audemars' cellulose solution to lift it into a solid bath. His fibers were used in Edison's discovery and in 1885 his wife in an exhibition of textiles crushed from his new fiber. Artificial silk was also exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1889 by the French chemist Count Hilaire de Chardonnet who is known as the "father of the rayon industry" because he created the first plant for commercial production of chardonnet silk in Besancon, France.

Rayon fiber properties

There are some properties of rayon fiber as follows-

1. Rayon is a regenerated natural fiber that is made from cellulose.

2. The drape and slipperiness of rayon textiles are often more like nylon.

3.  The hand feels and texture of rayon like silk, wool, cotton, and linen.

4. Rayon fibers are easily dyed in a wide range of colors.

5. Rayon fabrics are soft, smooth, cool, comfortable, and highly absorbent.

6. The durability and appearance retention of regular rayons are low, especially when it wet.

7. Rayon has the lowest elastic recovery of any other fiber.

8. Regular rayon has lengthwise lines called striations and its cross-section is an indented circular shape.

9. Staple fibers range from 1.5 to 15 denier and are mechanically or chemically crimped.

10.  Rayon fibers are naturally very bright.

11. The absorbency of the rayon is excellent.

12. Rayon fiber burns rapidly.