As the most important skeletal component in plants, the polysaccharide cellulose is an almost inexhaustible polymeric raw material with fascinating structure and properties. Formed by the repeated connection of D-glucose building blocks, the highly functionalized, linear stiff-chain homopolymer is characterized by its hydrophilicity, chirality, biodegradability, broad chemical modifying capacity, and its formation of versatile semicrystalline fiber morphologies. In view of the considerable increase in interdisciplinary cellulose research and product development over the past decade worldwide, this paper assembles the current knowledge in the structure and chemistry of cellulose, and in the development of innovative cellulose esters and ethers for coatings, films, membranes, building materials, drilling techniques, pharmaceuticals, and foodstuffs. New frontiers, including environmentally friendly cellulose fiber technologies, bacterial cellulose biomaterials, and in-vitro syntheses of cellulose are highlighted together with future aims, strategies, and perspectives of cellulose research and its applications.

Cellulose: Fascinating Biopolymer and Sustainable Raw Material

The Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of organic azides and alkynes has gained considerable attention in recent years due to the introduction in 2001 of Cu(1) catalysis by Tornoe and Meldal, leading to a major improvement in both rate and regioselectivity of the reaction, as realized independently by the Meldal and the Sharpless laboratories. The great success of the Cu(1) catalyzed reaction is rooted in the fact that it is a virtually quantitative, very robust, insensitive, general, and orthogonal ligation reaction, suitable for even biomolecular ligation and in vivo tagging or as a polymerization reaction for synthesis of long linear polymers. The triazole formed is essentially chemically inert to reactive conditions, e.g. oxidation, reduction, and hydrolysis, and has an intermediate polarity with a dipolar moment of ∼5 D. The basis for the unique properties and rate enhancement for triazole formation under Cu(1) catalysis should be found in the high ∆G of the reaction in combination with the low character of polarity of the dipole of the noncatalyzed thermal reaction, which leads to a considerable activation barrier. In order to understand the reaction in detail, it therefore seems important to spend a moment to consider the structural and mechanistic aspects of the catalysis. The reaction is quite insensitive to reaction conditions as long as Cu(1) is present and may be performed in an aqueous or organic environment both in solution and on solid support.

Cu-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition.

Advanced functional polymer membranes

Adsorption of dyes and heavy metal ions by chitosan composites: A review

Dissolution of cellulose with ionic liquids and its application : a mini-review

Water-soluble hydroxyalkyl cellulose with a molar degree of substitution of up to 2.79 was prepared under completely homogeneous reaction conditions in various ionic liquids without addition of inorganic bases. In acetate containing solvents the IL acts as a catalyst. The substitution patterns of the cellulose ethers were analyzed by 13C NMR spectroscopy, 1H NMR spectroscopy after peracetylation and GLC/MS after permethylation and depolymerization. A diminished tendency towards the formation of side chains compared to heterogeneously prepared hydroxyalkyl celluloses in the presence of inorganic bases was found.

Interactions of ionic liquids with polysaccharides 9. Hydroxyalkylation of cellulose without additional inorganic bases

Long chain starch esters were prepared by a new method using molten imidazole as solvent for the biopolymer. The advantage is the simplicity of the reaction mixture. Imidazole is acting not only as solvent, but also as reagent and base. The reaction succeeds via the imidazolide, which is formed in situ with an acid chloride. It yields highly pure derivatives, as could be shown by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. No hints for desoxychloro substituents or other impurities could be found. The high quality of the products prepared is responsible for the occurrence of colorless melts. Although DSC measurements show a variety of thermal transitions, the formation of melts in the range of 40 to 255 °C could be observed with a hot stage microscope. The melting behavior can be adjusted by the type of ester moiety and the amount of ester functions introduced. In case of starch palmitates completely transparent melts are obtained within two distinct DS regions namely around 1.5 and 2.2 to 3.0. Upon cooling the melts form homogeneous films on different supports including glass. They show good adhesion and should therefore be a suitable basic material for the preparation of composites like laminated glass.

Pure, Transparent‐Melting Starch Esters: Synthesis and Characterization

The application of starch in tailored materials is limited because of the high hydrophilicity of the polysaccharide. Thus, simple and efficient paths for the hydrophobic modification of native, cationic or thermoplastic starches by means of a radical grafting process using bifunctional fatty acid oxazoline derivatives were investigated. The modified starches can be manufactured by means of an extrusion process showing high grafting yields at adjustable grafting contents from 2.5 to 30%. Resulting starch materials are distinguished by modified water absorption properties and solubility, which is a prerequisite for their application in the paper or painting industry. Moreover the structure of the oxazoline derivative supplies the opportunity for reactive blending of different polymers carrying carboxyl, amino, mercapto or epoxy groups. This is exemplarily shown for the conversion with biodegradable polyesters, which contain carboxylic acid functions. Film forming properties of the new starch-based materials were studied. Results of the examination of manufactured shouldered test bars of starches coupled with biodegradable polyesters are presented as well.

Hydrophobic modification of starch via grafting with an oxazoline-derivative

We demonstrate a methodology to estimate the percent crystallinity of polymers directly with Raman spectroscopy and multivariate curve resolution (MCR) by alternating least-squares (ALS). In this methodology, the Raman spectrum of semicrystalline polymer is separated into two constituent components (crystalline and molten) and their corresponding concentrations. The percent crystallinity can be estimated as the change in area intensity of the molten spectral-component when polymer cools from a temperature above melting point to room temperature. The number of carbons in the crystalline lattice has also been estimated from the position of longitudinal acoustic (LA) Raman bands with the correlation established by Mizushima and Simanouti [Mizushima, S.; Simanouti, T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1949, 71, 1320]. The new method allows direct Raman estimation of absolute percent crystallinity of polymers. Until now, Raman spectroscopic estimation of percent crystallinity was possible only in conjunction with other techni...

Determination of Percent Crystallinity of Side-Chain Crystallized Alkylated-Dextran Derivatives with Raman Spectroscopy and Multivariate Curve Resolution

The degradation of cellulose to lmw samples with varying from 15 to 130 is investigated Cellulose samples prepared from the hydrolysis of regenerated cellulose fibers in dilute HCl possess  = 50 Applying homogenous degradation of microcrystalline cellulose in H3PO4 at RT for 3 weeks, samples with  = 35 and a PDI of 158 are obtained Decreasing the hydrolysis temperature to 8 °C results in lmw cellulose with  > 70 Fractionation in DMA/LiCl provides samples with  = 12 to 130, together with a narrow molecular weight distribution Detailed structural analysis by 2D NMR spectroscopy reveals that the prepared lmw celluloses are suitable as mimics for cellulose

Tim Liebert

Papers

Interactions of ionic liquids with polysaccharides 9. Hydroxyalkylation of cellulose without additional inorganic bases

Pure, Transparent‐Melting Starch Esters: Synthesis and Characterization

Hydrophobic modification of starch via grafting with an oxazoline-derivative

Determination of Percent Crystallinity of Side-Chain Crystallized Alkylated-Dextran Derivatives with Raman Spectroscopy and Multivariate Curve Resolution

Tailoring the Degree of Polymerization of Low Molecular Weight Cellulose