Ethyl-hydroxy ethylcellulose

A mixed ether, ethyl-hydroxy ethylcellulose is also available. This is similar to ethylcellulose but has broader solubility characteristics. 

Hydroxy-ethylcellulose + poly (ethylene oxide) Poly(ethylene oxide) + sodium alginate + chitosan Poly(glycidol-co-ethyl glycidyl carbamate... 

Methyl and ethyl ethers of cellulose with a degree of substitution (D.S.) of 0.1 to 0.35 are used as emulsifying agents and paper sizes. Hydroxy-ethylcellulose (D.S., 0.5) is also used as a size. Highly substituted ethyl-celluloses (D.S., 2.2 to 2.6) are of great importance in the plastics, film, and lacquer industries. Carboxymethylcellulose (D.S., 0.5 to 0.75) is used as a thickener in foods, and the sodium salt is added to washing powders in which its action in laundering is to prevent redeposition of soil in the fabric. 

Another advantage is that natural polymers can be modified using suitable reagents to obtain semisynthetic polymers. Modified starch/dextran, cyclodextrins, cellulose, alginate, scleroglucan and chitosan derivatives are the most important semisynthetic polymers for the drug industry [17-19]. In this respect, starting from the natural cellulose, at least 10 semisynthetic derivatives are widely used for the optimization of pharmaceutical formulations cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP), methylcellulose (MC), ethylcellulose (EC), hydroxy-ethyl cellulose (HEC), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), nitrocellulose [16,20,21]. 

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