Synthesis, micellization behavior and alcohol induced amphipathic cellulose film of cellulose-based amphiphilic surfactant

Abstract

This paper presented a novel preparation method of the cellulose-based amphiphilic surfactant, and the surfactant was used to prepare amphipathic cellulose membrane. The native cotton cellulose was tailored to cellulose segments in ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. Then, the hydrophobic and hydrophilic modification of cellulose segments were carried out by esterification and graft polymerization of the ɛ-caprolactone (ɛ-CL) monomer onto the hydroxyl group of cellulose as well as sulphonation with sulfamic acid. The amphipathic cellulose membrane was made by cellulose-based amphiphilic surfactant cross-linking with glutaraldehyde. The molecular structure of amphipathic cellulose surfactant was confirmed by FT-IR, and its surface active properties were investigated by Wilhelmy plate method and Steady-state fluorescence probe method, respectively. Experimental results showed that cellulose-based amphiphilic surfactant caused low interfacial tension of 48.62mN/m and its critical micelle concentration (cmc) value was 0.65wt% when the grafting ratio of cellulose-g-PCL (poly-caprolactone) was 25.40%. The contact angle between a droplet of water and the surface of membrane was 90.84o, and the surface free energy of the alcohol induced cellulose membrane was 15.7mJ/m2. This study may help increase using natural and biodegradable surface-activity materials with improved properties as surfactants.