Claims
- 1. An enzymatically degraded product of a cellulose derivative comprising of a mixture of oligomers of the cellulose derivative, a majority of said oligomers having an average degree of polymerization of between about 5 and about 100.
- 2. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the degradation product consists essentially of the mixture of oligomers.
- 3. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the cellulose derivative is selected from the group consisting of carboxymethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, methylethyl cellulose, hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose, hydroxymethylethyl cellulose and mixtures thereof.
- 4. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the degradation product has sufficient water solubility to provide solutions containing at least about 40 weight percent solids.
- 5. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the degradation product has a viscosity of less than about 33 milli-pascals-second in a 20 percent solution by weight.
- 6. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the mixture of oligomers has an average mlecular weight of less than about 15,000 daltons.
- 7. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein a majority of said oligomers has an average degree of polymerization of between about 5 and about 70.
- 8. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein a majority of said oligomers has an average degree of polymerization of between about 5 and about 50.
- 9. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein said mixture of oligomers contains less than about 25% by weight of monosaccharides, disaccharides or mixtures thereof.
- 10. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the mixture of oligomers contains less than about 10% by weight of monosaccharides, disaccharides or mixtures thereof.
- 11. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the mixture of oligomers have molecular weights such that the polydispersity index of the mixture is less than about two.
- 12. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein a majority of said oligomers have a rod-like configuration.
- 13. The degradation product of claim 1 wherein the mixture of oligomers has a Mark-Horiwink exponent from about 1.5 to about 2.5 at an NaCl concentration of 0.0005N to 0.5N.
- 14. A method for enzymatically producing a mixture of oligomers from a cellulose derivative comprising:
- selecting a cellulose derivative for degradation into a mixture of oligomers; and
- degrading the cellulose derivative with an enzyme into a mixture of oligomers of the cellulose derivative such that a majority of said oligomers have a degree of polymerization between about 5 and about 100.
- 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the cellulose derivative is enzymatically degraded such that a majority of said oligomers have a degree of polymerization of between about 5 and about 70.
- 16. The method of claim 14 wherein the cellulose derivative is enzymatically degraded such that a majority of said oligomers have a degree of polymerization of between about 5 and 50.
- 17. The method of claim 14 wherein the cellulose derivative is enzymatically degraded such that the mixture of oligomers has a sufficient water solubility to provide solutions containing at least about 40 weight percent solids.
- 18. The method of claim 14 wherein the cellulose derivative is enzymatically degraded such that the mixture of oligomers has a viscosity of less than about 33 milli-pascals-second in a 20 percent solution by weight.
- 19. The method of claim 14 wherein the cellulose derivative is selected to have at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of carboxymethyl, methyl, hydroxypropyl, methylethyl, hydroxymethylethyl and hydroxypropylmethyl.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/743,152, filed Aug. 9, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,755 which is a continuation-in-part of all of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/309,387 filed Feb. 10, 1989, now abandoned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/370,629 filed Jun. 23, 1989, now abandoned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/730,029 filed Jul. 12, 1991, now abandoned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/464,291 filed Jan. 12, 1990, now abandoned, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/565,346 filed Aug. 10, 1990, now abandoned, the contents of each application is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
US Referenced Citations (9)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
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277111 |
Sep 1927 |
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953944 |
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Related Publications (4)
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370629 |
Jun 1989 |
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730029 |
Jul 1991 |
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464291 |
Jan 1990 |
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565346 |
Aug 1990 |
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Continuations (1)
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743152 |
Aug 1991 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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309387 |
Feb 1989 |
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