Deuteration of cotton fibers. II. A novel method of deuteration-infrared study of cellulose in fiber form

A new technique enabling the use of cellulosic material in the fiber form during deuteration-infrared studies is reported. A minipress, modified to suit the new technique, is described. Since the material was studied in the fiber form, danger of fiber modification during film formation was avoided. Although the usual KBr pellet technique was utilized for scanning the spectra of the deuterated fibers, preparation of pellet as well as scanning were carried out under fully dry conditions, thus completely avoiding the rehydrogenation of deuterated fibers. The modified minipress containing the pellet forms an airtight assembly allowing repeat scans after any length of time without affecting the quality of the spectra of the deuterated sample.