INVESTIGATIONS OF CELLULOSE XANTHOGENATES IN RESPECT TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF ITS SUBSTITUENTS

In partially derivatized cellulose such as the cellulose xanthogenates the position of the substituents is of a special interest for the pro cessibility of the derivatives as these positions must have an essenti al influence both on the solubility of the derivative and the quality of the solution of the polymer. In order to determine the distribution of the xanthogenate groups within the cellulose matrix the size-exclu sion chromatography including a multi-detection system was used. The r esults show that the number of xanthogenate groups per macromolecule i s icreased and the molecular weight distributions get more uniform. Xa nthogenates isolated from viscoses having bad clogging values were eit her weakly and uniformly or very heterogeneously substituted in depend ence on the molecular weight. In every case only a few xanthogenate gr oups were introduced into the high molecular part of cellulose.