N. Olaru et al., CARBOXYMETHYLCELLULOSE SYNTHESIS IN ORGANIC MEDIA CONTAINING ETHANOL AND OR ACETONE/, Journal of applied polymer science, 67(3), 1998, pp. 481-486
A study of the carboxymethylation of wood pulp cellulose and cotton li
nters cellulose in different organic media, namely, ethanol, acetone,
and ethanol-acetone mixtures, is performed. Previously, the ethanol-ac
etone 1 : 1 (w/w) mixture used as reaction medium was found to give a
higher degree of substitution (DS) than the pure solvents separately.
In the present work, the kinetic investigation of cellulose carboxymet
hylation was carried out in ethanol-acetone 3 : 7 (w/w) mixture, as we
ll as in acetone as reaction media, and the same synergistic effect of
the solvents mixture was observed. The data suggested a pseudo-first-
order kinetic behavior satisfactorily described by the following equat
ion: In(1.11 - DS) = -kt. The two reaction steps observed are related
to the transformations of less ordered regions with higher reaction ra
te and more ordered regions with smaller reaction rates, respectively.
A possible explanation for this behaviour is given, taking into accou
nt the different structural changes of cellulose crystallinity and acc
essibility produced by ethanol-acetone 3 : 7 (w/w) mixture, ethanol, a
nd acetone, as revealed by X-ray diffraction and calorimetry determina
tions. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.