Cross and Bevan reaction

The steps in the Cross and Bevan reaction may be depicted as follows (Migita and Nakano 1955) ... 

It is remarkable that neither of these workers appears to have investigated aqueous preparative methods, despite the fact that Cross and Bevan and their colleagues, from 1892 onward, had been developing the Viscose process for cellulose, and had, in 1907, applied similar reaction-conditions to starch. The formation of a starch viscose imder aqueous conditions was confirmed later by Ost and coworkers, who found that the solution decreased in viscosity on storage ( ripened ), like cellulose Viscose, but with no accompanying separation of starch. Various industrial uses for starch xanthate have since been suggested for example, as a frothing... 

M.P. Schutzenberger produced cellulose acetate, with a degree of substitutions (DS) of about three by the reaction of acetic anhydride and cellulose in 1859. Cross and Bevan produced filaments and films from chloroform solutions of this triacetate but this was not an economical process. The commercial cellulose acetate rayon fiber process, based on acetone solutions of secondary cellulose acetate (DS=2), was developed and patented by G.W. Miles who partially saponified the triacetate in 1903 (11). 

Modern methods of producing regenerated cellulose can be traced to the discovery in 1892 by Cross, Bevan, and beadle that cellulose can be rendered soluble by xanthate formation by treatment with sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide and regenerated by acidification of the xanthate solution. This process is known as the viscose process. The reactions can be indicated schematically as... 

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