Repetitive carboxymethylation of cellulose

Repetitive carboxymethylation enhances the degree of substitution of cellulose obtained from jute fibre, cotton and wood pulp. The extent of increase in the degree of substitution depends on the type of the cellulosic source. Although introduction of carboxymethyl groups resulted in products with fairly high degrees of substitution, it was foud that during the process of carboxymethylation the molecular mass of the starting material undergoes substantial degradation.