Elucidation of the structure of unmodified and modified cotton fibers by X-ray nanodiffraction with unpredecented resolution

Cotton fibers have a significant global socio-economic impact. Yet, cotton growth and fiber post-processing are among the most unsustainable agro-industrial sectors globally. Among the several sustainable alternatives currently being explored, we pioneered the concept of material farming with a specific focus on cotton plants. Cotton plants are regarded as living factories to (re)design cellulose-based material with tailored properties. Recently, we demonstrated that feeding in vitro-grown cotton with glucose derivatives carrying an azide group results in their biological incorporation into cotton fibers with a heterogenous distribution while modulating the fibers' end properties, such as tensile properties. In the proposed project, we aim to explore the structure-properties relations behind the cotton fibers and those that were biologically modified using wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) by making use of the ESRF X-ray beamline uniqueness.