Introduction
Up until the middle thirties, chlorine dioxide had been considered an expensive bleaching agent and also had been too explosive to ship as a gas, so it had remained a laboratory curiosity since its discovery in the 19th century. In the middle thirties, Mathieson Chemical Corporation found that solid sodium chlorite was a cheap and effective carrier of chlorine dioxide. This discovery opened the door for extensive use of chlorine dioxide and since then it has come into its own as a bleaching agent. This investigation is concerned with the three methods of generation of chlorine dioxide from sodium chlorite and their effects upon softwood cellulose
