Cellulose
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Cellulose is the structural basic of plant life, although in its commonest textile form of cotton cellulose it is merely a seed hair. This however is fortunate for it provides a cellulose of a comparatively high degree of purity.
Owing to the importance of this material, more attention has been devoted to the elucidation of its chemical constitution and molecular structure than with other textile materials; hence there has been correspondingly greater progress.Each glucose unit contains three free hydroxyl groups. The hydroxyl group on the 2 and 3 carbons atoms are secondary hydroxyls, whereas that on number 6 carbon atom is a primary hydroxyl. The constitution of cellulose as a chain of glucose residues, joined as in cellobiose, is now generally accepted.
