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SynopsisThe kinetics of alkaline degradation of cotton hydrocellulose were determined in 5% NaOH at various temperatures. An activation energy of 24 kcal./mole was found for the endwise degradation reaction, while that of termination to a stable m-saccharinic acid endunit is 32 kcal./mole. Consequently, the DP, of the degradable chain length is highly dependent on the reaction temperature, being 1000 at 65°C. and 140 a t 132°C. A t lower temperatures, the majority of degrading chains terminate to a normal reducing endgroup a t the crystallineamorphous transition region. From the data, the DP, of cellulose chain segments participating in the amorphous regions of the original cotton fibril was calculated to be 143. This result strongly supports the classical micellar fibril structure over the folded model proposed by Manley.

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