Premium
Characterization of small gels in viscose
Author(s) -
Sperling L. H.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1963.070070420
Subject(s) - viscose , pulp (tooth) , sulfite , cellulose , dispersity , polymer chemistry , materials science , swelling , chemistry , chemical engineering , composite material , organic chemistry , medicine , pathology , engineering
The small gels present in cotton linters viscose, prehydrolyzed sulfate wood pulp viscose, and sulfite wood pulp viscose were examined by light scattering, electron microscopy, and chemical methods. In all cases a population of nearly monodisperse, spherical gels was found. The diameters are 0.3–0.6 μ by light scattering techniques, while the diameters of the dry gels by electron microscopy are near 0.1 μ. The difference is attributed to the swelling of the possibly crosslinked gels. The number of these inhomogeneities is very high, of the order of magnitude of 10 11 gels/g. cellulose, yet they comprise less than 0.1% of the total mass involved. Chemically, the wood pulp viscose small gels appear to be about half cellulose II of a very low degree of substitution and about half of unknown composition. The cotton linters viscose gels contain xylan and some silica. These gels bear a striking resemblance to those studied in a previous acetate gel investigation, for both the cotton linters and the wood pulps. It is speculated that they may have a common origin.