Abstract
DRY seaweed contains 15–40 per cent of alginic acid1, which is readily extracted with sodium carbonate solution2. Sodium alginate was available in powder form before the War, but no serious attempt had been made to examine its possibilities as a raw material for the manufacture of rayon, despite the existence of abundant supplies of seaweed off the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and the ease with which filaments are obtained when a solution of sodium alginate is extruded into baths containing inorganic acid or a salt of a suitable polyvalent metal. Unfortunately, these favourable characteristics were overshadowed in the minds of early observers by the fact that the salts of alginic acid—or such of them as were examined—were found to be soluble in solutions of soap and soda. There seemed to be little purpose in devising satisfactory methods of spinning alginate rayons when the fabrics made therefrom would dissolve in the solutions commonly used in laundering textile materials. Furthermore, the prospect of producing alkali-resistant alginate rayons must have seemed remote in the absence of exact information about the constitution of alginic acid.
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SPEAKMAN, J. Seaweed Rayon. Nature 155, 655–657 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155655a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155655a0
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