Abstract
Cellulose acetate is one of the most important cellulose derivatives. The use of ionic liquids in cellulose processing was recently found to act both as a solvent and also as a reagent. A recent study showed that cellulose dissolution in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoliumacetate (EMIMAc) mixed with dichloromethane (DCM) resulted in controlled homogenous cellulose acetylation; yielding water-soluble cellulose acetate (WSCA). This research investigated the properties of cellulose acetate prepared in this manner, in an aqueous solution. The results revealed that WSCA fully dissolves in water, with no significant sign of molecular aggregation. Its conformation in aqueous solution exhibited a very large persistence length, estimated as over 10 nm. The WSCA exhibited surface activity, significantly reducing the surface tension of water. Because of the molecular dissolution of WSCA in water, augmented by its amphiphilicity, aqueous solutions of WSCA exhibited an overwhelmingly high rate of enzymatic hydrolysis.
Highlights
Cellulose acetate (CA), formed by partial or full acetylation of the three hydroxyl groups of anhydroglucose (AGU), the repeat unit of cellulose, is one of the oldest synthetic materials, studied since the end of the nineteenth century
The triacetate product can be subjected to partial hydrolysis with dilute sulfuric acid, to yield secondary acetates with a lower degree of substitution (DS), e.g., monoacetate (DS~1) and diacetate (DS~2)
The objectives of this work were to evaluate some of the physical properties of water-soluble cellulose acetate (WSCA) prepared using EMIMAc and DCM, in particular the chain conformation and extent of aggregation in water, and to assess the amphiphilicity of the dissolved WSCA by its reduction of water surface tension
Summary
Cellulose acetate (CA), formed by partial or full acetylation of the three hydroxyl groups of anhydroglucose (AGU), the repeat unit of cellulose, is one of the oldest synthetic materials, studied since the end of the nineteenth century. The triacetate product can be subjected to partial hydrolysis with dilute sulfuric acid, to yield secondary acetates with a lower degree of substitution (DS), e.g., monoacetate (DS~1) and diacetate (DS~2) It is well-known that cellulose acetates with DS in the range of 0.4–0.9 are water-soluble [1,2,3,4]. Background subtraction allows a linear fit to Equation (2) as shown in Figure 5: I (1) I (q) = I 0 + b. To scattering vector relation is characteristic of [14]: rod-like entities, and is typically observed in the range In this case, the pre-factor, I0 is given by of scattering vectors (1/L) < q < (1/Rc), where
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