Synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose from waste of cotton ginning industry

Noor Haleem; Muhammad Arshad; Muhammad Shahid; Muhammad Ashraf Tahir

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.07.023

Synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose from waste of cotton ginning industry

Carbohydr Polym. 2014 Nov 26:113:249-55. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.07.023. Epub 2014 Jul 17.

Authors

Noor Haleem¹, Muhammad Arshad², Muhammad Shahid³, Muhammad Ashraf Tahir³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
² Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. Electronic address: marshad@iese.nust.edu.pk.
³ School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.

PMID: 25256482
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.07.023

Abstract

The aim of present work was to isolate cellulose from cotton gin waste (CGW) and synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) from it. Scoured and bleached CGW was used to investigate the effects of temperature, reaction time, acid-base concentration on the physiology of the resultant cellulose polymer. The isolated cellulose from CGW was converted to CMC by etherification using sodium monochloroacetic acid and different sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrations (5-40 g/100mL) were tested to get high quality product. The optimum condition for carboxymethylation was found to be 20 g/100mL NaOH which provided the highest viscosity and degree of substitution (DS=0.874). Isolated cellulose and CMC were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FT-IR analysis revealed that the produced cellulose was of very good quality. Furthermore, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis spotlighted crystalline nature of cellulose. SEM images showed rough structure of cellulose while that of the CMC had a smooth surface. This optimized method will be tested at pilot scale in collaboration with local industry.

Keywords: Biowaste; Bleaching; CMC; Carboxymethyl cellulose (PubChem CID: 6328154); Cellulose; Cotton gin waste; Ethanol (PubChem CID: 702); Etherification; Glacial acetic acid (PubChem CID: 176); Hydrochloric acid (PubChem CID: 313); Isopropanol (PubChem CID: 3776); Methanol (PubChem CID: 887); Monochloroacetic acid (PubChem CID: 300); Nitric acid (PubChem CID: 944); Sodium hydroxide (PubChem CID: 14798); Sulphuric acid (PubChem CID: 1118).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't