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“One pot” homogeneous synthesis of thermoplastic cellulose acetate-graft-poly(l-lactide) copolymers from unmodified cellulose

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Abstract

Using native cellulose as the starting material, cellulose acetate-graft-ploy (l-lactide) (CA-g-PLA) copolymers were successfully synthesized by “one-pot” process in an ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AmimCl). In this process, cellulose was first reacted with acetic anhydride, yielding cellulose acetate (CA), and then ring opening graft copolymerization of l-lactide was carried out from the residual hydroxyl groups of CA in the same solution using 4-dimethylaminopridine (DMAP) as the catalyst. Both acetyl and ploy (l-lactide) contents in CA-g-PLA copolymers could be well controlled by changing reaction conditions. The structures and thermal properties of CA-g-PLA copolymers were characterized. The glass transition temperature Tg of copolymers decreased with increasing PLA content. Compared to the pure PLA and cellulose-graft-PLA copolymers, the CA-g-PLA copolymers possessed better thermo mechanical properties in a temperature range of 60–130 °C. When the molar substitution of PLA (MSPLA) was above 1.71, the CA-g-PLA copolymers exhibited thermoplastic behavior and could be processed by conventional thermal processing methods, such as injection molding and melt spinning.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50973124, 21174151), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KJCX2-YW-H30-03, KJCX2-YW-H-19) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, BeiHang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Yihao Luan & Maosheng Zhan

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics (KLEP), Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yihao Luan, Jin Wu, Jinming Zhang, Jun Zhang & Jiasong He

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  1. Yihao Luan
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  2. Jin Wu
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  3. Maosheng Zhan
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Correspondence to Maosheng Zhan or Jun Zhang.

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Luan, Y., Wu, J., Zhan, M. et al. “One pot” homogeneous synthesis of thermoplastic cellulose acetate-graft-poly(l-lactide) copolymers from unmodified cellulose. Cellulose 20, 327–337 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-012-9818-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-012-9818-x

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