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Why does rayon lose strength when it becomes wet?
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man-made fibre
Figure 1: Three common polymer structures. The linear, branched, and network architectures are represented (from top), respectively, by high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and phenol formaldehyde (PF). The chemical structure and molecular structure of highlighted regions are also shown.
Rayon is a man-made fibre composed of regenerated cellulose. The reason it loses strength when wet is that the fibre is readily penetrated by water, which causes it to swell.1
While rayon shares many properties with cotton, this specific reaction to moisture is a characteristic feature of the material. To mitigate such issues, manufacturers can manipulate the filaments during the production process—such as by drawing or stretching them—to induce crystallization of the cellulose polymers, which creates high-strength variants of the fibre.12