The oxidation of cellulose with chromic acid.

Cellulose oxidations are of interest because they impair the physical properties of papers and cotton textiles and occur, sometimes in bleaching and dyeing, and always during exposure to light, air, and moisture over long periods of time. With the exception of a few cases, the detailed nature of the reactions involved in mild or drastic oxidations is still obscure, although it has long been known that oxidation forms acidic and reducing groups in some of the glucose units that comprise the long macromolecules of cellulose