Changes in the degree of polymerization of wood celluloses during dilute acid hydrolysis and TEMPO-mediated oxidation: Formation mechanism of disordered regions along each cellulose microfibril.

Most commercially available plant celluloses, such as kraft pulps and cotton celluloses, have so-called leveling-off degrees of polymerization (LODPs) when subjected to dilute acid hydrolysis. The formation of LODPs is hypothesized to be caused by disordered regions that are present periodically along each cellulose microfibril in plant celluloses. Here, we prepared never-dried wood cellulose, and wood celluloses at different drying stages, and subjected them to dilute acid hydrolysis. The viscosity average degrees of polymerization (DPv) of the wood celluloses decreased in DPv with increasing dilute acid-hydrolysis times. However, the DPv values after 4h of acid hydrolysis differed from those of softwood bleached kraft pulp (SBKP), which showed typical patterns of LODPs. Thus, the disordered regions corresponding to LODPs that were observed for SBKP are probably not synthesized in the native wood. Instead, such disordered regions are formed secondarily or artificially during the isolation/purification and/or drying processes of plant cellulose fibers. The results of the dilute acid hydrolysis and the 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation of SBKP and softwood unbleached soda-anthraquinone pulp showed that the structures of disordered regions can be controlled via the preparation and drying conditions of wood cellulose used as starting materials.

One-step preparation of 2,3,6-tricarboxy cellulose.

Water-soluble sodium 2,3,6-tricarboxylate cellulose (NaTCC) or sodium mesotartarate/monohydrated glyoxilate alternating co-polyacetal was prepared from regenerated cellulose in a yield of 82% by one-step oxidation with catalytic amounts of 2-azaadamantane N-oxyl (AZADO), NaBr, and excess NaOCl in water at room temperature under alkaline conditions. The AZADO-oxidized product was shown to have an almost homogeneous NaTCC chemical structure by its 1H and 13C NMR spectra. The weight- and number-average molecular masses of the obtained NaTCC were 10,700 and 7000. When AZADO-mediated oxidation was applied to softwood bleached kraft pulp, a water-soluble oxidized product was obtained. However, it had a more heterogeneous chemical structure showing that the complete oxidation of the C2, C3, and C6 hydroxyls to carboxyls is difficult to achieve in native cellulose.