Synthesis and structure of carboxymethylcellulose with a high degree of substitution derived from waste disposable paper cups

Jing Chen; Huan Li; Changqing Fang; Youliang Cheng; Tingting Tan; Hanzhi Han

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116040

Synthesis and structure of carboxymethylcellulose with a high degree of substitution derived from waste disposable paper cups

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Jun 1:237:116040. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116040. Epub 2020 Mar 3.

Authors

Jing Chen¹, Huan Li¹, Changqing Fang², Youliang Cheng¹, Tingting Tan³, Hanzhi Han¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, PR China.
² Faculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, PR China. Electronic address: fcqxaut@163.com.
³ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, PR China.

PMID: 32241422
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116040

Abstract

The cost of the cellulose derived from some raw materials was high. In addition, the dispersion of the cellulose with special shape and a low degree of substitution (DS) in water-soluble polymers was poor. To resolve this problem, cellulose was separated from waste disposable paper cups (WDPC) and then the carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) was synthesized by etherification. Under the optimized conditions (the etherification temperature of 70 ℃, the etherification time of 1.5 h, the monochloroacetic acid mass (C₂H₃ClO₂) of 7 g), the DS of CMC was as high as 1.21. As-prepared CMC showed ribbon and rod-like shapes with a diameter of 25-50 μm. In addition, they exhibited an excellent thermal stability. Compared with other CMC, we could infer that as-prepared CMC in this paper will have potential applications in flexible composites and functional materials.

Keywords: Carboxymethylcellulose; Degree of substitution; Etherification; Waste disposable paper cups.