Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber made by regenerating natural cellulose, typically from wood pulp, into a fiber that can be woven or knitted to imitate silk, wool, cotton or linen. The French scientist Hilaire de Chardonnet developed and patented the first commercial process for a nitrocellulose version of the fiber in 1885, earning him recognition as the father of rayon, while the English chemist Charles Frederick Cross and his collaborators Edward John Bevan and Clayton Beadle patented an alternative cellulose process in 1894 that they named viscose, after the highly viscous solution at its core; the British firm Courtaulds Fibres produced the first commercial viscose rayon in November 1905. Modern rayon is made chiefly by the viscose method, which dissolves cellulose using alkali and carbon disulfide before regenerating it into fiber, though the older cuprammonium method is now largely obsolete and a newer lyocell process, developed in 1982, dissolves cellulose in a less toxic amine oxide solvent.
Facts
SignificanceChardonnet's process produced the first commercial semi-synthetic fiber, letting manufacturers imitate silk and other natural fibers with a fiber made from regenerated cellulose, a development that grew into a major global textile industry once the safer viscose process reached commercial scale in 1905. 1 FAQs
Is rayon a natural or a man-made fiber?
Rayon is man-made but built from purified plant cellulose.
Rayon is a manufactured textile, so it counts as a man-made fiber, but it is made from a natural raw material. It is composed of regenerated and purified cellulose from plants. It was the first man-made fiber, developed in the late nineteenth century as a substitute for silk.
Connections
Sources
1. Rayon - Wikipedia
History section, Chardonnet
He patented his production process in 1885.
History section, Chardonnet [significance]
the first commercial semi-synthetic fiber
- In Group: Synthetic Polymers and Polymerization Processes, lead sentence
In Field: Chemical Engineering, Introduction
Rayon, also called viscose, is a semi-synthetic fiber made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products.
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