The 19th-century development that allowed for the nitration of cellulose fibres obtained from cotton linters may constitute the advent of plastics. In 1832 Henri Braconnot, a chemist at Nancy, Fr., prepared a “xyloidine” by treating starch, sawdust, and cotton with nitric acid. He found that this material was soluble in wood vinegar and attempted to make coatings, films, and shaped articles from it. Somewhat later, in 1846, the German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein accidently treated cotton with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids and obtained cellulose nitrate, which soon became commonly known as nitrocellulose. Schönbein found that he could dissolve the nitrocellulose in a mixture of ether and ethyl alcohol. Although the cellulose molecules retained their threadlike shape in solution, making it possible to spin them into fibres, their extreme flammability made them unacceptable for the textile industry (although in highly nitrated form they found immediate use as guncotton, the base of smokeless gunpowders). In subsequent decades methods were devised to spin nitrocellulose into fibres and then convert them back into inflammable cellulose; these culminated in 1891 with the introduction of Chardonnet silk, the first commercially produced artificial fibre (see above Rayon).
In 1861 the British inventor Alexander Parkes patented Parkesine, a plastic made from a liquid solution of nitrocellulose in wood naphtha, and in 1867 Parkes’s coworker Daniel Spill produced Xylonite, a mixture of nitrocellulose, camphor, and castor oil. In the United States John W. Hyatt produced the first commercially successful plastic in the late 1860s by mixing solid cellulose nitrate and camphor. The solid solution could be heated until soft and then molded into shapes. Marketing this tough, flexible material, called celluloid, as a substitute for ivory, tortoiseshell, and horn, Hyatt’s Celluloid Manufacturing Company made it into a variety of products, including combs, piano keys, and knife handles. Beginning in the 1880s, celluloid acquired one of its most prominent uses in detachable collars and cuffs for men’s clothing, and the development of superior solvents allowed the material to be made into flexible film for photography. In the early 20th century celluloid found new applications as side windows for motorcars and as film for motion pictures, and after World War I nitrocellulose was employed in paints for the booming auto industry.
In the 1920s and ’30s celluloid began to be replaced in most of its applications by less flammable and more versatile materials such as cellulose acetate, Bakelite, and the new vinyl polymers. By the end of the 20th century the only unique application of note for cellulose nitrate was in table tennis balls. It also continued to be used as a film-forming polymer in some solvent-based clear coatings and paints and in fingernail polishes.
The deficiencies inherent in cellulose nitrate raised the possibility of producing other esters of cellulose, particularly the esters of organic acids. In 1865 Paul Schützenberger and Laurent Naudin of the Collège de France in Paris discovered the acetylation of cellulose by acetic anhydride, and in 1894 Cross and Bevan, working in England, patented a process for preparing a chloroform-soluble cellulose triacetate. An important commercial contribution was made by the British chemist George Miles in 1903–05 with the discovery that, when the highly acetylated cellulose was subjected to hydrolysis, it became transformed to a less highly acetylated compound (cellulose diacetate) that was soluble in cheap organic solvents such as acetone.
The full exploitation on a commercial scale of the acetone-soluble material was accomplished by two Swiss brothers, Henri and Camille Dreyfus, who during World War I built a factory in England for the production of cellulose diacetate to be used as a nonflammable “dope” for coating fabric airplane wings. After the war, with no further demand for acetate dope, the Dreyfus brothers turned to the production of diacetate fibres, and in 1921 they began commercial manufacture of the product trademarked as Celanese. In 1929 DuPont began production of acetate fibre in the United States. Acetate fabrics found wide favour for their softness, graceful drape, wrinkle resistance, and resistance to staining. In 1950 Courtaulds Ltd. began to develop triacetate fibres, which were subsequently produced in Britain under the trademark Tricel and in the United States under the trademarked name Arnel. Triacetate fabrics became known for their greater shape retention, resistance to shrinking, and ease of washing and drying.
Production of acetate fibres has declined since the mid-20th century partly because of competition from polyester fibres, which have the same or better “wash-and-wear” properties, can be ironed at higher temperatures, and are less expensive. Nevertheless, acetate fibres are still used in “easy care” garments and for the inner linings of clothing because of their high sheen. Cellulose diacetate tow (bundles of fibre) has become the principal material for cigarette filters.
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The first commercial use of cellulose diacetate as a plastic was in so-called safety film, which began to replace celluloid film in motion-picture photography in the 1920s. Acetate was given further impetus by the development of injection molding, a rapid and efficient forming technique to which acetate was particularly amenable but to which celluloid could not be subjected owing to the high temperatures involved. Cellulose acetate became widely used in the automotive industry because of its mechanical strength, toughness, wear resistance, transparency, and ease of moldability. Its high resistance to impact made it a desirable material for protective goggles, tool handles, oil gauges, and the like. With the introduction of newer polymers beginning in the 1930s and ’40s, however, cellulose acetate plastic went into decline. It is still extruded or cast into film or sheet used in packaging, membrane filters, and photographic film, and it is injection-molded into small parts such as toothbrushes and eyeglass frames.