I want to make cellulose acetate for a high school chemistry class demo. Cuprammonium process?

Question

Doesn't have to be large scale, just to show the concept and how it works. Is there another process that's easier/ safer/ less expensive/ demo kits already exist? What is involved in the cuprammonium process?

Thanks for your patience and thanks to all who answer.

Answer 1

The Cuprammonium process is best done on industrial scale production. For the laboratory demonstration, I would suggest using cotton fibers pretreated with glacial acetic acid and sulfuric acid. Acetic anhydride and additional acetic acid will then precipitae the acetate rayon.

J. Chem Ed. has run a number of articles on making Cellulose acetate (Rayon) by various methods.