Versatile gas-phase reactions for surface to bulk esterification of cellulose microfibrils aerogels.

Aqueous suspensions of microfibrillated cellulose obtained by a high pressure homogenization process were freeze-dried after solvent exchange into tert-butanol. The resulting aerogels, which displayed a remarkable open morphology with a surface area reaching 100 m(2)/g, were subjected to a gas-phase esterification with palmitoyl chloride. Under these conditions, variations of the reaction temperature from 100 to 200 °C, of the reaction time from 0.5 to 2 h, and of the initial quantity of reagent, led to the preparation of a library of cellulose palmitates with DS varying from zero to 2.36. These products were characterized by gravimetry, FTIR, and (13)C solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Of special interest were the cellulose palmitate samples of low DS in the range of 0.1-0.4, which corresponded to hydrophobic cellulose microfibrils exclusively esterified at their surface while keeping intact their inner structure.

Citation

Matthieu Fumagalli, Djamila Ouhab, Sonia Molina Boisseau, Laurent Heux. Versatile gas-phase reactions for surface to bulk esterification of cellulose microfibrils aerogels. Biomacromolecules. 2013 Sep 9;14(9):3246-55

PMID: 23889256

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