The hydrolysis of cellulose Part I. The fine structure of egyptian cotton

The kinetics of chain degradation have been studied for the heterogeneous hydrolysis of Egyptian cotton under mild acid conditions. The results have been interpreted to give estimates of accessibilities free from the defects associated with former measurements. The amount of accessible material in the undegraded cotton was found to be 10.8%, but during hydrolysis this is reduced to less than 5%. The recrystallization takes place at an early stage in the degradation, starting at a point when approximately one‐eighth of the intercrystalline chain segments have been broken.