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Viscose is a viscous organic liquid used to make rayon
Rayon

Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic fiber ....
 and cellophane
Cellophane

Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils and Fats, and bacterium makes it useful for food packaging....
. Viscose is becoming synonymous with rayon, a soft material, used in mostly tops, coats and jackets.

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m727750",this)' onMouseout='hide("m727750")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Cellulose">Cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
 from wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
 or cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 fibres is treated with sodium hydroxide
Sodium hydroxide

Sodium hydroxide , also known as lye, caustic soda and sodium hydrate, is a caustic metallic Base . Sodium hydroxide forms a strong alkaline solution when dissolved in a solvent such as water, however, only the hydroxide ion is basic....
, then mixed with carbon disulfide
Carbon disulfide

Carbon disulfide is a colorless, volatile liquid with the chemical formula CS2. The compound is used frequently as a building block in organic chemistry as well as an industrial and chemical non-polar solvent....
 to form cellulose xanthate
Xanthate

Xanthates are the salts and esters of a xanthic acid, ROCSH or O-esters of dithiocarbonic acid where R is any organic residue....
, which is dissolved in more sodium hydroxide. The resulting viscose is extruded into an acid bath either through a slit to make cellophane
Cellophane

Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils and Fats, and bacterium makes it useful for food packaging....
, or through a spinneret
Spinneret

A spinneret is a spider spider silk-spinning organ . It is usually on the underside of a spider's abdomen, to the rear. Most spiders have six spinnerets; some have four or two....
 to make rayon
Rayon

Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic fiber ....
.






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Encyclopedia


Viscose is a viscous organic liquid used to make rayon
Rayon

Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic fiber ....
 and cellophane
Cellophane

Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils and Fats, and bacterium makes it useful for food packaging....
. Viscose is becoming synonymous with rayon, a soft material, used in mostly tops, coats and jackets.

Manufacture

Cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
 from wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
 or cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 fibres is treated with sodium hydroxide
Sodium hydroxide

Sodium hydroxide , also known as lye, caustic soda and sodium hydrate, is a caustic metallic Base . Sodium hydroxide forms a strong alkaline solution when dissolved in a solvent such as water, however, only the hydroxide ion is basic....
, then mixed with carbon disulfide
Carbon disulfide

Carbon disulfide is a colorless, volatile liquid with the chemical formula CS2. The compound is used frequently as a building block in organic chemistry as well as an industrial and chemical non-polar solvent....
 to form cellulose xanthate
Xanthate

Xanthates are the salts and esters of a xanthic acid, ROCSH or O-esters of dithiocarbonic acid where R is any organic residue....
, which is dissolved in more sodium hydroxide. The resulting viscose is extruded into an acid bath either through a slit to make cellophane
Cellophane

Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils and Fats, and bacterium makes it useful for food packaging....
, or through a spinneret
Spinneret

A spinneret is a spider spider silk-spinning organ . It is usually on the underside of a spider's abdomen, to the rear. Most spiders have six spinnerets; some have four or two....
 to make rayon
Rayon

Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic fiber ....
. The acid converts the viscose back into cellulose.

Rayon Synth

Pollution

Viscose is currently becoming less common because of the polluting effects of carbon disulfide and other by-products of the process, forcing the Bridgwater factory to close in 2005.

History

Viscose was created by French scientist and industrialist Hilaire de Chardonnet
Hilaire de Chardonnet

Hilaire de Chardonnet was a France engineer and industrialist from Besan?on, inventor of artificial silk.He called his new invention "Chardonnet silk" and displayed it in the Exposition Universelle ...
 (1838-1924), inventor of the first artificial textile fiber, artificial silk) in Échirolles
Échirolles

?chirolles is a Communes of France in the Is?re Departments of France in southeastern France.It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Grenoble, and is adjacent to it on the south....
 in 1891, then the process for manufacturing viscose was patented by three British scientists, Charles Frederick Cross
Charles Frederick Cross

Charles Frederick Cross was British chemist.Born in Brentford,Middlesex, his father was a schoolmaster turned soap manufacturer. After graduating from King's College London, he went to Zurich Polytechnic and then, with his future partner, Edward John Bevan, to Owens College, Manchester....
, Edward John Bevan
Edward John Bevan

Edward John Bevan was an England chemist. He became a leader in the affairs of the Society of Public Analysts and editor of The Analyst.Bevan was notable for his caustic wit....
 and Clayton Beadle, in 1902.

Viscose was first used for coating fabrics, a purpose for which it is quite suitable. However, when Cross
Charles Frederick Cross

Charles Frederick Cross was British chemist.Born in Brentford,Middlesex, his father was a schoolmaster turned soap manufacturer. After graduating from King's College London, he went to Zurich Polytechnic and then, with his future partner, Edward John Bevan, to Owens College, Manchester....
 and his partners tried to make solid objects like umbrella handles they were found to be much too brittle.

Further development led to viscose being spun into thread for embroidery and trimmings. Eventually, after Samuel Courtauld & Co.
Samuel Courtauld

Samuel Courtauld may refer to:*Samuel Courtauld , American-born British industrialist*Samuel Courtauld , businessman and art collector; great-nephew of the above...
 had taken over in 1904, Viscose manufacture became big business. By the twenties and thirties it had almost completely replaced the traditional cotton and wool for women's stockings and underwear. Similar changes occurred in the US and in Europe, too. Viscose was also being used for linings and furnishing fabrics; providing the staple for towels and table-cloths and was being made into high tenacity yarn for tires. Yet other uses included the manufacture of sponges and absorbent cloths.

Making viscose film had been tried by Cross in the 1890s but it was in Switzerland and France that major successes were achieved. By 1913 C.T.A. established La Cellophane SA. Ten years later DuPont Cellophane Co.
DuPont

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company is an United States chemical industry that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuth?re Ir?n?e du Pont....
 was set up in the USA and in 1935 British Cellophane Ltd was established in Bridgwater
Bridgwater

Bridgwater in Somerset, England, is a market town, the administrative centre of the Sedgemoor Districts of England, and the leading industrial town in the Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England....
, Somerset
Somerset

Somerset is a Counties of England in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The Ceremonial counties of England of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west....
.

Products made from viscose

  • Art silk
    Art silk

    Artificial silk or art silk is a synthetic manufactured fiber which resembles silk but costs less to produce. Frequently, art silk is just a synonym for rayon....
  • Cellophane
    Cellophane

    Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils and Fats, and bacterium makes it useful for food packaging....
  • Rayon
    Rayon

    Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic fiber ....
  • Modal
    Modal (textile)

    Modal is a bio-based material fiber made by spinning reconstituted cellulose from beech trees. It is about 50% more hygroscopic, or water-absorbent, per unit volume than cotton is....
  • Synthetic velvet
    Velvet

    File:Ottoman cover.jpgVelvet is a type of tufted textile in which the cut yarns are very evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it a distinct feel....


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