Cuprammonium rayon, temperature

Fig. 1.—Effect105 of Temperature on Uptake of Sulfur, Chlorine, and Nitrogen by Cuprammonium Rayon (on Tosylation in Presence of Pyridine during Four Days). (Taken from K. Hess and N. Ljubitsch, Ann., 507, 62 (1933).)...

Cuprammonium rayon is made from scoured and bleached cotton linters or purified wood pulp with a high a cellulose content. The cellulose is washed and then pressed until it contains about 50 per cent of water. In this state, it is placed in a mechanical mixer together with cuprammonium solution and agitated until completely dissolved, whilst the temperature is maintained at 5° C (41 °F). The solution is then diluted to about 10 per cent concentration. After filtration and exposure to vacuum to remove air bubbles and dissolved gases, the solution is allowed to ripen in enclosed vessels until it is the desired viscosity. In modem practice copper carbonate is mixed intimately with the cellulose in a shredding machine and the resultant mass is then broken up and stirred for some hours with aqueous ammonia and caustic soda, when it passes into solution. 

Highly degraded cellulosic materials, such as viscose rayon, D.P. 250 to 350, may be dispersed in 8-12 % caustic at low temperatures. Upon increasing the temperature in a stepwise manner, the dispersed material may be fractionally precipitated. " This method of fractionation is of particular interest since viscosity data indicate that the state of dispersion of degraded cellulosic materials in caustic solution and in cuprammonium solution is similar. "... 

---