Viscose in the context of Natural fiber

Spinning is a twisting technique to form yarn from fibers. The fiber intended is drawn out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin. A few popular fibers that are spun into yarn other than cotton, which is the most popular, are viscose (the most common form of rayon), animal fibers such as wool, and synthetic polyester. Originally done by hand using a spindle whorl, starting in the 500s AD the spinning wheel became the predominant spinning tool across Asia and Europe. The spinning jenny and spinning mule, invented in the late 1700s, made mechanical spinning far more efficient than spinning by hand, and especially made cotton manufacturing one of the most important industries of the Industrial Revolution.

Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibers, which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth, or rope.Fiber crops are characterized by having a large concentration of cellulose, which is what gives them their strength. The fibers may be chemically modified, like in viscose (used to make rayon and cellophane). In recent years, materials scientists have begun exploring further use of these fibers in composite materials. Due to cellulose being the main factor of a plant fiber's strength, this is what scientists are looking to manipulate to create different types of fibers.

Fiber crops are generally harvestable after a single growing season, as distinct from trees, which are typically grown for many years before being harvested for such materials as wood pulp fiber or lacebark. In specific circumstances, fiber crops can be superior to wood pulp fiber in terms of technical performance, environmental impact or cost.

Artificial silk or art silk is any synthetic fiber which resembles silk, but typically costs less to produce. Frequently, the term artificial silk is just a synonym for rayon. When made out of bamboo viscose it is also sometimes called bamboo silk.

The first successful artificial silks were developed in the 1890s of cellulose fiber and marketed as art silk or viscose, a trade name for a specific manufacturer.

Vulcanized fibre, also known as red fibre, is a laminated plastic composed of only cellulose. This material is a tough, resilient, hornlike material that is lighter than aluminium, tougher than leather, and stiffer than most thermoplastics. The newer wood-laminating grade of vulcanized fibre is used to strengthen wood laminations used in skis, skateboards, support beams and as a sub-laminate under thin wood veneers.

A product very similar to vulcanized fibre is leatheroid; however, Leatheroid is made using a different chemical process. Since 2004, the scientific community has regained interest in this material due to its renewability and excellent physical properties, giving birth to the field of all-cellulose composites. These composites are all made of a matrix consisting of dissolved or partially dissolved cellulose, and the reinforcement remains cellulose fibres. A variety of solvents other than zinc chloride has been explored, including sodium hydroxide at low temperatures and ionic liquids. Whereas the original idea was to use long reinforcing fibres (ramie, flax, viscose, etc) in order to confer the composites with anisotropic mechanical properties, the field has also explored the use of nanocellulose.