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Dissolving Cellulose in a NaOH/Thiourea Aqueous Solution: A Topochemical Investigation
Author(s) -
Yan Lifeng,
Chen Juan,
Bangal Prakriti R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.200700072
Subject(s) - cellulose , dissolution , thiourea , microcrystalline cellulose , aqueous solution , chemical engineering , chemistry , mica , regenerated cellulose , polymer chemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering
Various kinds of cellulose/cellulose‐aggregate films have been prepared on newly cleaved mica by the deposition of the suspensions of microcrystalline cellulose in water in the presence or in absence of NaOH/thiourea at different temperatures. The topochemistry of the cellulose surfaces have been directly observed by employing both SEM‐EDX and AFM. These studies show that both NaOH and thiourea have a homogeneous distribution around the cellulose fibers during the dissolving process, and it is believed that their synergic interactions play a key role to dissolve the cellulose aggregates. It is also found that the dissolving process is continuous while the ice state formation promotes the dissolving process.