Silyl celluloses (SiC) were prepared by reacting cellulose with chloropropyltrichlorosilane (CPTCSi) and chloropropyltriethoxysilane (CPTESi) in LiCl/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc). The Si content in the silyl cellulose could be controlled by adjustment of the molar ratio of silane and cellulose. FT-IR spectra showed that cellulose was readily reacted with the above two silane reagents, and the reactivity of CPTCSi is higher than that of CPTESi. It was presumed that the reaction process belongs to graft-polymerization. The results of differential thermal analysis (DTA) indicated that the thermostability of the materials produced increased with the increase of Si content in the sample. The acid resistance of the samples SiC in 1 mol/L HCl aqueous solution was improved significantly. When Si content was ca. 20%, the silyl cellulose has excellent thermostability, hydrophobicity, low density and stability in 1 mol/L HCl aqueous solution, owing to crosslinking of cellulose chain with silane.
A series of cellulose acetate membranes were prepared by using formamide as additive, and then were hydrolyzed in 4 wt% aqueous NaOH solution for 8 h to obtain regenerated cellulose membranes. The dependence of degree of substitution, structure, porous properties, solubility and thermal stability on hydrolysis time was studied by chemical titration, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry, respectively. The results indicated that the pore size of the regenerated cellulose membranes was slightly smaller than that of cellulose acetate membrane, while solvent-resistance, crystallinity and thermostability were significantly improved. This work provides a simple way to prepare the porous cellulose membranes, which not only kept the good pore characteristics of cellulose acetate membranes, but also possessed solvent-resistance, high crystallinity and thermostability. Therefore, the application range of cellulose acetate membranes can be expanded.
