Cellulose in never-dried gel oriented by an AC electric field.

Never-dried cellulose gel obtained by slow coagulation from LiCl/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solution was exposed to an alternating current electric field. Making use of the birefringence of oriented cellulose and by means of wide-angle X-ray scattering, it was demonstrated that preferred orientation of cellulose molecules parallel to the electric field lines is induced in the cellulose gel. The preferred orientation remained unchanged for several days after storage in water and persisted after drying of the cellulose gel.