Cellulose Resin Plastics

Cellulose resins and their plastics are the earliest industrialized products in the field of polymer chemistry. It is made of natural polymer cellulose, such as wood, short lint and grass cellulose chemically processed into widely used polymer fine chemical materials. The earliest available cellulosic resins are nitrocellulose and cellulose acetate, which have been in development for more than 100 years. After these two kinds of fibers were put into the market, a series of fiber derivatives such as cellulose esters and ethers were successively developed, and their application fields were continuously expanded. In the middle of the 20th century, due to the rise of petrochemicals, the successful development of various new types of synthetic polymer materials led to a decline in the proportion of cellulosic resins and their plastics in the field of polymer materials, but in recent years they have been re-emerged. We pay attention to it and carry out more in-depth and extensive research. As a result, we have once again demonstrated a thriving scene.
Cellulose is mainly divided into two major categories of cellulose esters and cellulose ethers. Among cellulose esters, cellulose acetate, nitrocellulose and viscose cellulose are the most widely used. The cellulose acetate industry developed earlier and is mainly used to produce cigarette filter tow, cellulose acetate plastics, and textile fibers. The average annual growth rate of the cigarette filter tow has been maintained at about 4% in recent years; the development of cellulose acetate fiber as fiber has little room for future growth, and the sales volume of cellulose acetate plastic has been relatively stable because of its excellent performance. The annual consumption in Japan alone is around 4,000 tons. From a global perspective, the production of cellulose acetate is mainly concentrated in the United States, Western Europe and Japan, and the combined output of these regions accounts for about 80% of the world's total production.
Among other cellulose ester products, nitrocellulose is used for the production of varnishes, plastics and films due to its low price and its current usage. The nitrocellulose produced by DuPont and Herkules is mainly used for the production of half Packaging machine' target=_blank> transparent film. The cellulose acetate butyrate and cellulose acetate propionate are mainly used for the production of high-grade plastics, inks and coatings. At present, only a few companies in the world can produce, mainly Eastman, Herkules and Bayer. Wait. In addition, almost all of the film stocks are produced using cellulose triacetate and terylene resin. The other major product of cellulose mixed esters, cellulose tetraacetate, has better physical properties than cellulose acetate, good miscibility with synthetic resins and high-boiling plasticizers, and weather resistance and electrical insulation. Well, it is now widely used in the production of plastics, inks, coatings, etc. It can also be used in the production of automotive paints, ballpoint pen core oils, etc.
There are two main types of cellulose ethers: one is ionic, such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC); the other is non-ionic, such as ethyl cellulose (EC), methyl cellulose (MC), hydroxyl Ethyl cellulose (HEC), hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and the like. These products were successively put into industrial production in the 1950s. However, these cellulose ethers are widely used in the textile, coatings, pharmaceuticals, food, building materials and electronics industries due to their excellent properties such as thickening, emulsification, suspension, film formation, moisture protection, colloid protection, and enzyme resistance. It plays a very important role in social and economic development. According to statistics, the current global production capacity of cellulose ethers is 450,000 tons per year, of which non-ionic cellulose ethers are 135,000 tons. The main producing countries are the United States, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Their production accounts for the world's total output. About 80%.
Compared with developed countries, China's cellulose resin industry is developing slowly. Such as cellulose acetate, cellulose triacetate, etc. need to be resolved by imports. The production of nitrocellulose is relatively large. Only table tennis is produced, and thousands of tons of cellophane tablets are consumed every year. In addition, it is also used in the production of spectacle frames, varnish, etc. It is expected that the consumption in 2005 will reach 2,200 tons. In addition, China's cellulose ether industry started late, non-ionic has not yet achieved large-scale production, the total production capacity is only 100 tons / year; ionic cellulose ether has 40 production plants, annual production capacity of 30,000 About tons. At present, the main application areas of domestic carboxymethyl cellulose are: daily chemicals 45%, oilfield exploitation 20%, textile 10%, medicine, food 4%, building materials 3%, and other industries 18%. The market requirements for non-ionic cellulose ethers are: 27% for daily chemicals, 23% for oilfields, 16% for medicines and foods, 14% for electronic components and coatings, and 20% for other industries.
The 21st century is an era of information industry, bioengineering, and nanotechnology. We must intensify our efforts to expand the production of cellulose resins, strengthen the research, development, promotion, and application of cellulose semipermeable membranes, and conduct in-depth fundamental theoretical research. Give full play to the existing production capacity, gradually make the product variety specifications serialized and scaled up, and catch up with and surpass the level of developed countries in the world.