Native cellulose hydrogen bonds

Figure 4.3 Inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds of native cellulose.

Fig. 76. Diagram of the structure of native cellulose with hydrogen bonds according to Pierce [28].

No critical discussion of biosynthesis can be attempted without consideration of the information available on the structure of native cellulose. As for studies on biosynthesis, much controversy has existed in the field of structural analyses of cellulose. There seem to be only two points on which all workers are in agreement, namely, that (a) native cellulose is a composite of linearly extended chains of (l->4)-j6-D-glu-can (1), and (b) strong intrachain and interchain hydrogen-bonding between D-glucosyl residues occurs in such a way as to create a highly insoluble, and partially crystalline, fibrillar structure. 

The chains form a layer in the a-c crystallographic plane, where they are held together by hydrogen bonds from 0(3) in one chain to 0(6)H in the other. There are no hydrogen bonds in cellulose I between these layers, only weak van der Waal s forces in the direction of the b-axis. Native cellulose therefore has a chain lattice and a layer lattice at the same time. 

Gardner, K. H., and Blackwell, J. (1974). The hydrogen bonding in native cellulose. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 343, 232-237. 

Fig. 11.—Hydrogen-bond Seheme Proposed for Native Cellulose. (The antiparallel-chain arrangement is used to attain a hydrogen-bonding scheme that involves inter-molecular hydrogen-bonds along the principal crystallographic planes.)...

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