Thermochemistry of the dissolution and characteristics of the solvation of cellulose, polysaccharides, and their derivatives

The results of thermochemical studies on solutions of cellulose, its derivatives, and other polysaccharides are surveyed and treated systematically. The existing ideas about the energy effects due to the amorphous-crystalline structure of polysaccharides, including cellulose, are analysed. It is shown that the enthalpies of solution under the conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium are thermodynamically most preferred. Attention is concentrated on the establishment of a relation between the heats of solution and the electron-donating capacities of the solvent and the polymer. New approaches to the quantitative estimation of the thermochemical parameters of solvation processes in solutions of cellulose and its ethers and esters, based on multiparameter correlations of the enthalpies of solution and transfer with the physicochemical properties of the solvents, are described. The bibliography includes 78 references.