Carboxymethylation of hemicellulose and hemicellulose-based hydrogels, 2017PEERS

Hemicellulose is an underutilized, abundant biopolymer found in lignocellulosics and can be an important element in the suite of products in a biorefinery. There is interest in using hemicellulose as a substitute for starch in disposable product applications. The hemicellulose used herein was isolated from poplar with 10% sodium hydroxide.  In one process, the hemicellulose was modified with a carboxymethylation reaction, in which isolated hemicellulose was activated with aqueous sodium hydroxide and reacted with sodium chloroacetate yielding the carboxymethylated hemicellulose derivative. Design of experiment (DOE) was used to understand the effect of the dosage of sodium hydroxide, dosage of sodium chloroacetate, temperature and time, on the degree of substitution (DS). The highest DS achieved was 0.68 with high sodium choloracetate and alkali charge and high temperature. In a second process, hemicellulose-based hydrogels were produced by a free radical graft polymerization with acrylic acid and acrylamide.  In this case, for the grafted products containing 50% hemicellulose a water and saline absorption of 196 and 24 grams/gram, were determined, respectively.. The findings here are important steps in developing suitable hydrogels from hemicellulose for absorbancy applications.  

TAPPI conference proceedings and presentations, technical papers, and publication articles provide technical and management data and solutions on topics covering the Pulp, Paper, Tissue, Corrugated Packaging, Flexible Packaging, Nanotechnology and Converting Industries.

Simply select the quantity, add to your cart and your conference paper, presentation or article will be available for immediate download.