New polymers from cellulose sulphonates

The paper reports some highlights in the synthesis and subsequent modificat ions of cellulose sulphonates in order to design specific polysaccharide st ructures useful for supramolecular assemblies. A homogeneous procedure yiel ds pure products with unusual solubility and fluorescence activity as well as being usable for thermally induced phase separation processes. The acyla tion of remaining hydroxyl groups leads to lipophilic cellulosics which for m ultrathin layers by means of the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Water-solub le tosyl cellulose sulphates build up multilayer assemblies by interaction with multivalent cations. Nucleophilic displacement reactions were studied as well.