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| - As the most important skeletal component in plants and also a substance produced by certain bacteria, polysaccharide cellulose is an almost in- haustible polymeric raw material with a fascinating structure and intere- ing properties. The fusion of both carbohydrate and polymer chemistry in amacromoleculebiosynthetically composed ofrepeating glucoseunitsgen- ates surprising speci?city and impressively diverse supramolecular/morp- logicalstructures,reactivities, andfunctions. SincethediscoveryofcellulosebyAnselmePayenin1838,thestartoflar- scalecellulose ester,ether, and ?ber production(which started more than100 years ago),and theextensive scienti?c investigations ofcellulose by Hermann Staudinger in 1920, cellulose research and product development have been rede?ned by the increasingly more signi?cant impact of such work. Duringthepast5–10yearsaconsiderableincreaseinknowledgeofthestr- ture,chemistry,andprocessingofcellulose,aswellasdevelopment ofinno- tivecelluloseproducts,hasbeenobserved.Newfrontiersinvolvesophisticated methods of structural analysis, environmentally safe cellulose-?ber techno- gies, as well as progressive work with bacterial nanocellulose, (bio)materials, and a broadspectrum of cellulose composites. Associatedwiththistrend,relatedpolysaccharideslikehemicelluloses,d- tran,chitin, and starchhave also attracted growinginterest. Illustrativeexamplesofthisexcitingevolutionarepresentedin?veselected contributionsfrominternationalexpertsintheir?eldsinthisspecialvolume titled Polysaccharides II within the series Advances in Polymer Science.This serves as a follow-up to Polysaccharides I (vol. 186). The comprehensive - viewsstemfromtheauthors’ownresearchexperienceanddemonstrateclearly the latest scienti?c results and their practical applications as well as the int- disciplinary character of the subject and itsimportance to polymer science
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