Cellulose liquefaction in acidified ethylene glycol

• DOI: 10.1007/s10570-009-9288-y
• Publication Date: 2009-02-27T07:17:37Z
• Authors: Edita Jasiukaitytė; Matjaž Kunaver; Matija Strlič
• Keywords: Molar mass; Filter paper

Wood pulp cellulose was used in a study of its catalyzed liquefaction in the presence of ethylene glycol, p-toluene sulfonic acid monohydrate or sulphuric acid being the catalysts. For this study, microcrystalline cellulose, Whatman filter paper no. 1 and cotton linters with molar masses of 76,000, 699,000 and 1,910,000 g mol−1, respectively were used. This liquefaction was studied by gravimetric determinations, by X-ray diffraction analysis of the residual cellulose and by monitoring of the molar mass decrease over different time intervals, using size-exclusion chromatography. The disordered regions, even of cellulose with the highest molar mass degraded in the initial minute of liquefaction. However, the highly ordered cellulose regions remained relatively stable for a longer time. None the less, partial degradation of the highly ordered regions of the cellulose was achieved.