Natural cellulose fibres have been employed for packaging applications for a long time. Their use, however, has been hampered by their high hydrophilicity and their moisture sensitivity. It has, thus, been proposed to circumvent this problem through the hydrophobic modification of their surface thanks to the use of molecular grafting approaches. * The authors are pleased to acknowledge the important contribution of Dr. David Guerin and Matthieu Schelcher from CTP (Centre Technique du Papier) in Grenoble for the fatty acids HPLC analysis.We are also indebted to the European Union for its financial support through the collaborative research program, Phycello (http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial technologies/articles/article 387 en.html) and for a Marie Curie Grant to one of us. Brought to you by | University of Connecticut Authenticated Download Date | 5/26/15 11:19 PM reagent migration and reaction. Grafting densities were performed by using the HPLC technique.The results obtained through the use of this test allowed a better understanding of chromatogenic chemistry phenomenon and an identification of the main parameters which affect the process: the nature of the reagent, the temperature, the reaction time, the nature of the substrate, etc. We have more particularly shown that the diffusion and grafting yields were maximal for a specific temperature which increases with the boiling point and therefore with the chain length of the reagents. We have proposed that this temperature should correspond to a compromise between the diffusion and reactivity properties of the reagent, its evaporation and its degradation by hydrolysis.