Abstract
(1) The depolymerisation of cellulose in ZnCl2-acetic acid solution increases as the concentration of ZnCl2 or temperature rises.
(2) The depolymerisation decreases as water content in acetic acid solution increases. It seems that this is due to the decrease of ZnCl2 adsorption on cellulose by adding water into acetic acid.
(3) When acetic anhydride is added into acetic acid, both depolymerisation and acetylation of cellulose take place and they reach maximum at about 60% acetic anhydride concentration. It seems that this is due to the correlation between the increase of acetic anhydride concentration and the decrease of ZnCl2 adsorption.
