Cellulose

Cellulose, as the most abundant organic polymer, has served mankind for thousands of years as an indispensable material for clothing and housing, and has formed a large part of human culture since the Egyptian papyri. In contrast with cellulose application as a natural product, the use of this polymer as a chemical raw material started just 150 years ago with the discovery of the first cellulose derivatives, but subsequently developed to a production volume of more than 5 million tons annually during this century. At the same time the classical areas of processing cellulose as a natural product by mechanical technologies, for example the manufacture of textile goods from cotton, received a strong impetus by combining them with chemical processes to improve product quality. This line of progress is closely related to and often originated from the development of a systematic chemistry of cellulose comprising predominantly the chemical transformation of the macromolecule.