A New Equation between Surface Tension and Solubility Parameters of Cellulose Derivatives depending on DS: Application on Cellulose Acetate

Abstract

Generally, grafting alkylated chains onto cellulose backbone modifies its physicochemical properties strongly, and the variation in the hydrophobicity of the cellulose causes significant modifications of these superficial characteristics. In this sense, this study highlighted the effect of the hydrophobicity-hydrophilic balance brought by the level of grafting chains on the surface tension, and relationship between the surface tension measurements and the solubility parameters of activated surface. The results obtained from FTIR and 13C NMR analysis confirmed the molecular structure of acetylated compounds with substitution occurring preferably at C-6, C-2 and C-3 hydroxyl positions, respectively. The surface active properties were investigated by the density of elaborated polymers and its relationship with the Parachors based on the Group Contribution Method. This study may help to increase the using natural and biodegradable fibers as surface-activity industrial materials. The calculations of Parachors (P) and densities of cellulose acetates samples (CA) at different substitution degree (DS) make to find a new relationship between the surface tension and the DS. These equations show that the surface tension variation depending on DS can be linearly or polynomial which explains that the surface tension of the cellulose acetate is highly depends on its DS