ABSTRACT
Early work on cellulose ion exchange was stimulated by the need to separate high molecular weight biochemical polyelectrolytes. Some work was carried out using cellulose itself, utilizing its small number of carboxyl groups, but more specialized ion exchangers were also developed and described in the early literature. J. D. Guthrie and A. L. Bullock, in a review in I960, described exchangers derived from many different cellulose sources and illustrated the use of a cross-linking agent for the control of the swelling properties of the cellulose on introduction of the ionic groups. The polyglucose chains of fibrous cellulose are held together by hydrogen bonding; the interspaces are relatively large, although dense crystalline regions do exist. Regenerated cellulose exchangers have been used on a large scale for the recovery of protein from waste streams: for example, serum protein from abbatoir waste, lac-toalbumin from milk whey, and the purification of egg white protein.
