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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #336594
Research Project: Increasing the Value of Cottonseed

Location: Commodity Utilization Research

Title: Modification of cellulose with succinic anhydride in TBAA/DMSO mixed solvent under catalyst-free conditions

Author
item XIN, PING-PING - NANJING FORESTRY UNIVERSITY
item HUANG, YAO-BING - NANJING FORESTRY UNIVERSITY
item HSE, CHUNG-YUN - U.S. FOREST SERVICE (FS)
item CHENG, HUAI
item HUANG, CHAOBO - NANJING FORESTRY UNIVERSITY
item PAN, HUI - NANJING FORESTRY UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Materials
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2017
Publication Date: 5/12/2017
Citation: Xin, P., Huang, Y., Hse, C., Cheng, H.N., Huang, C., Huang, Pan, H. 2017. Modification of cellulose with succinic anhydride in TBAA/DMSO mixed solvent under catalyst-free conditions. Materials. 10(5):526.

Interpretive Summary: Cellulose is widely available and is a promising starting material for the production of biobased materials. However, cellulose is insoluble in most solvents, and most cellulosic derivatives are made today under semi-heterogeneous conditions. In recent years there has been a fair amount of interest to come up with special solvents that can fully dissolve cellulose and enable homogeneous reactions to be conducted involving cellulose. This work reports the use of one such solvent system (TBAA/DMSO) for the reaction of cellulose and succinic anhydride. The results showed that the degree of substitution (DS) depended on the reaction conditions, and the maximum DS observed was 1.3. The succinylated cellulose was found to have a large surface area and may have potential applications as an absorbent for heavy metal ions, an emulsion stabilizer, or a nanoparticle dispersant.

Technical Abstract: Homogeneous modification of cellulose with succinic anhydride was performed in tetrabutylammonium acetate (TBAA)/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixed solvent. The molar ratio of succinic anhydride (SA) to free hydroxyl groups in the anhydroglucose units (AGU) and TBAA dosage were investigated as parameters for succinoylation. The degree of substitution (DS) was used as a measure of the extent of succinoylation. The results showed that the DS values increased with increasing molar ratio of SA/AGU. TBAA dosage also played an important role in the succinoylation. The succinoylation of cellulose was fully characterized by Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), solid state CP/MAS 13C NMR spectroscopy (CP/MAS 13C NMR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).