Dissolution of enzyme-treated cellulose using freezing–thawing method and the properties of fibres regenerated from the solution

Abstract

The rapid coagulation of NaOH-based cellulose solution during the wet spinning process leads to a low stretching ratio and, consequently, the low mechanical properties of the fibres. The aim of this work was to slow down the coagulation by replacing the sulphuric acid spin bath with an acetic acid bath. The spin dope was prepared by dissolving the enzyme-treated dissolving pulp in aqueous sodium zincate using a freezing–thawing method. The optimal zinc oxide and sodium hydroxide concentrations were studied first. The most thermally stable cellulose solution contained 6.5 wt% NaOH and 1.3 wt% ZnO with 6 wt% enzyme-treated dissolving pulp. The spin dope was prepared accordingly. Coagulation of the cellulose solution slowed down in the acetic acid bath, resulting in a significantly higher stretching ratio for the fibres than with the sulphuric acid bath. However, the acetic acid spun fibres shrunk strongly during drying, and the possibly aligned order of the molecular chains due to the high stretch was partly lost. As a consequence, the high stretch was not transferred to high tenacity of the fibres in this study. However, the result suggests attractive potential to develop processing conditions to increase fibre tenacity.