The main focus of this work was to establish a good understanding of the reaction kinetics and behavior of hydroxypropyl cellulose during esterification with different acid chlorides, ranging from unsaturated 10-undenoic acid to stearic acid. Once this was well understood and controlled, the materials were used in an effort to crate tailored functional interfaces aiming for the discovery of possible applications and further utility. To this end both, classical surface coating techniques, including blending, additivities, and different application methods as well as photolithographic methods were utilized, which finally led to a range of proof-of-principle and proof-of-concept stage demonstrations creating, superhydrophobic and photoresponsive coating materials, surface attached networks with tunable polarity, thermo-optical coatings, coatings with tunable friction properties and finally in a spin-off cooperation Janus type membranes.