Gelation of cellulose/calcium thiocyanate solution and its application to spinning for fiber.

For the purpose to develop regenerated cellulose fiber with high dry and wet tenacity, we tried gel spinning from cellulose/aqueous calcium thiocyanate system. The gelation conditions of this system were determined by temperature jump method. Under some conditions, this system forms gel in 1 min enough for spinning. The system at 125 degrees C was extruded into air at 10 degrees C under various spinning draft, followed by extraction of the solvent using acetone or ethanol. As the result of spinning, we successfully obtained the new cellulose fiber with both strong tenacity in dry and wet state and good fibrillation resistance.