What is Rayon | property of rayon fibre | user of rayon
Rayon Rayon was the first man-made fibre and has been called 'the laboratory's first gift to the loom'. It is made from the cellulose of wood pulp or cotton. This is why it is called a cellulosic polymer. Since rayon is produced by the chemical treatment of cellulose (a natural substance), it is not a pure synthetic fibre. Rayon was developed as a substitute for silk. Silk is a natural fibre which has a beautiful texture. Silk was probably discovered in China, but its production was kept a closely guarded secret for quite some time. Also, the silk fibre was quite expensive. This led to extensive attempts to develop an artificial fibre that looked similar to silk and was relatively cheaper. The attempts succeeded in the late 19th century when scientists developed an artificial fibre by chemical processing of wood pulp. This fibre exhibited properties similar to that of silk and was named rayon (also called artificial silk). Properties of rayon f...