Abstract
IN a recent communication1, Peirce has put forward considerations on the structure of cellulose based on a pyranose ring in which the five carbon atoms are nearly co-planar and there is a right angle between the bonds of the ring oxygen. We should like to say that to invoke such a configuration is unnecessary and unjustified by the evidence. To be sure, a flat or flattish ring was long current in the X-ray literature on cellulose2, but it was never easy to see the real need for it, and latterly Meyer and Misch3 have stated that the X-ray intensities support the 'armchair' ring equally well and have gone over to that form.
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References
Peirce, F. T., Nature, 153, 586 (1944).
For example, Meyer and Mark, "Der Aufbau der hochpolymeren orgaaischen Naturstoffe" (1930).
Meyer, K. H., and Misch, L., Helv. Chem. Acta, 20, 232 (1937).
Pauling, "The Nature of the Chemical Bond" (1939).
Cox, E. G., and Jeffrey, G. A., Nature, 143, 894 (1939).
Brown, C. J., Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham (1939).
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ASTBURY, W., DAVIES, M. Structure of Cellulose. Nature 154, 84 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154084b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154084b0
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