Abstract
Homogeneous modification of cellulose with succinic anhydride was performed using tetrabutylammonium acetate (TBAA)/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixed solvent. The molar ratio of succinic anhydride (SA) to free hydroxyl groups in the anhydroglucose units (AGU), TBAA dosage, reaction temperature, and reaction time were investigated. The highest degree of substitution (DS) value of 1.191 was obtained in a 10 wt% TBAA/DMSO mixed solvent at 60 °C for 60 min, and the molar ratio of SA/AGU was 6/1. The molar ratio of SA/AGU and the TBAA dosage showed a significant influence on the reaction. The succinoylated cellulose was characterized by ATR-FTIR, TGA, XRD, solid state CP/MAS 13C NMR spectroscopy (CP/MAS 13C NMR), and SEM. Moreover, the modified cellulose was applied for the adsorption of Cu2+ and Cd2+, and both the DS values of modified cellulose and pH of the heavy metal ion solutions affected the adsorption capacity of succinylated cellulose. The highest capacity for Cu2+ and Cd2+ adsorption was 42.05 mg/g and 49.0 mg/g, respectively.
Highlights
Cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer on earth
This result was consistent with the degree of substitution (DS) values of succinylated cellulose samples (Figure 1), which suggested an increase in the reactivity of cellulose when the tetrabutylammonium acetate (TBAA) dosage increased
Where 162 (g/mol) is the molar mass of an anhydroglucose unit (AGU); 100 (g/mol) is the net increase in the mass of an anhydroglucose units (AGU) for each succinoylation substituted; and m is the weight of the sample for every experiment. nCOOH is the amount of COOH and calculated by Equation (2), where VNaOH is the volume of standard NaOH solution in the titration; CNaOH is the concentration of standard NaOH; VHCl is the volume of standard HCl consumed in the titration; and CHCl is the molarity of standard nCOOH = (VNaOH × CNaOH − VHCl × CHCl )/2 (2)
Summary
Cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer on earth. It has several unique properties such as biocompatibility, biodegrability, low cost, and chemical stability, which makes it a promising resource to replace fossil resources for the production of industrial materials, chemicals, and biofuels [1,2,3,4]. Used the same catalyst for the homogeneous modification of cellulose in tetraethylammonium chloride (TEACl)/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and tetra butylammonium fluoride (TBAF)/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixed solvents, with the DS values ranging from 0.41 to 2.11 [35,36]. Other catalysts, such as iodine and N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), were found to exhibit good catalytic activity in the succinoylation of cellulose [37]. The cations and anions were found to interact with the –OH groups on the cellulose chain and thereby disrupted inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding This solvent possesses great potential to be used for the homogeneous chemical modification of cellulose.
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