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How are rayon and acetate made from cellulose?

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Diagram titled Spinning jenny showing an operator using a hand wheel to rotate a cord-driven roller, drawing and twisting fibers from multiple clamped rovings onto tilted spindles; numbered callouts trace the process from roving to thread. — textile An annotated diagram showing how an operator uses a hand wheel, rollers, and spindles on a spinning jenny to draw and twist unspun fiber into thread.

Rayon and acetate are both man-made fibers derived from natural cellulose, typically sourced from wood pulp or cotton linters. While both are processed into solutions to be spun into fibers, they differ significantly in their chemical treatment and manufacturing methods.

Rayon

Rayon is a "regenerated" fiber, meaning the cellulose is chemically altered into a liquid state and then converted back into pure cellulose during spinning. In the most common process, viscose rayon, purified cellulose is treated with caustic soda and then carbon disulfide to form cellulose xanthate. This viscous solution is forced through a spinnerette into a coagulating bath of acids and salts, where it is reconverted into solid cellulose filaments.1

Acetate

Unlike rayon, cellulose acetate is a synthetic compound created by replacing the hydrogen in the cellulose molecule's hydroxyl groups with acetyl groups. This is achieved by treating cellulose with acetic acid and acetic anhydride. The resulting material can be dissolved in solvents and spun into fibers. Depending on the degree of acetylation, the material is processed as either triacetate or diacetate, often using dry spinning, where the solvent evaporates in a heated tower to leave a solid fiber.23