W. Mormann et J. Demeter, Controlled desilylation of cellulose with stoichiometric amounts of water in the presence of ammonia, MACRO CH P, 201(15), 2000, pp. 1963-1968
Full Paper: Desilylation of trimethylsilyl cellulose with stoichiometric am
ounts of water has been achieved in THF/ammonia in the presence of sacchari
n as catalyst. Experimental degrees of silylation are in close agreement wi
th calculated ones. Deviations occur if the desired DS is near 1 These are
due to the insolubility of silyl cellulose with DS 1 in THF/ammonia and to
the heterogeneous character of the reaction at this point. Hydrolysis of 1,
2-bis(trimethylsiloxy)propane in THF/ammonia showed that the secondary silo
xy group is more readily cleaved than the primary. it also proved that the
slow conversion of trimethylsilanol to hexamethyldisiloxane is responsible
for the rather long reaction times required.