Abstract

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is an important industrial polymer with a wide range of applications in flocculation, drag reduction, detergents, textiles, paper, foods, drugs, and oil well drilling operation. The various properties of CMC depend upon three factors: molecular weight of the polymer, average number of carboxyl content per anhydroglucose unit (AGU) i.e. degree of substitution and also on the distribution of carboxyl substituent’s along the polymer chains. The cellulose extracted from corn cobic lignocellulosic waste biomass was converted to CMC by etherification process using sodium hydroxide and monochloroacetic acid (MCA) under heterogeneous condition. The carboxymethylation reaction was optimized against the NaOH concentration, monochloroacetic acid concentration, reaction temperature and time. The degree of substitution (DS) was analyzed with respect to the reaction conditions using chemical method. The produced CMC was characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectra and X-ray diffractogram. The optimized conditions to yield CMC with high DS of 1.18 are; concentration of aqueous NaOH 3.25 mol/AGU, 25 % (w/v); concentration of MCA, 2.4 mol/AGU; reaction time, 3.0 h and temperature, 60 °C with isopropyl alcohol as the supporting solvent medium.

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