Susceptibility of Iα- and Iβ-Dominated Cellulose to TEMPO-Mediated Oxidation

Biomacromolecules. 2015 May 11;16(5):1643-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.5b00274. Epub 2015 Apr 9.

Abstract

The susceptibility of Iα- and Iβ-dominated cellulose to TEMPO-mediated oxidation was studied in this work since the cellulose Iα-allomorph is generally considered to be thermodynamically less stable and therefore more reactive than the cellulose Iβ-allomorph. Highly crystalline Cladophora nanocellulose, which is dominated by the Iα-allomorph, was oxidized to various degrees with TEMPO oxidant via bulk electrolysis in the absence of co-oxidants. Further, the Cladophora nanocellulose was thermally annealed in glycerol to produce its Iβ-dominated form and then oxidized. The produced materials were subsequently studied using FTIR, CP/MAS (13)C NMR, XRD, and SEM. The solid-state analyses confirmed that the annealed Cladophora cellulose was successfully transformed from an Iα- to an Iβ-dominated form. The results of the analyses of pristine and annealed TEMPO-oxidized samples suggest that Iα- and Iβ-dominated cellulose do not differ in susceptibility to TEMPO-oxidation. This work hence suggests that cellulose from different sources are not expected to differ in susceptibility to the oxidation due to differences in allomorph composition.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cellulose / analogs & derivatives
  • Cellulose / chemistry*
  • Cellulose / metabolism
  • Crystallization
  • Cyclic N-Oxides / chemistry*
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Oxidation-Reduction*
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared

Substances

  • Cyclic N-Oxides
  • Cellulose
  • TEMPO