Use of a Low-Energy Electron Beam for Degree of Polymerization Control of Cotton Linter

Abstract

Regenerated cellulose from wood fibers has been used in manufacturing fabrics for clothing. Cotton linter may provide higher-quality regenerated cellulose than wood fibers, because cotton fibers are nearly completely composed of pure cellulose. For efficient dissolution of regenerated cellulose in NMMO (N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide), which is a nontoxic, almost completely recoverable, environment-friendly cellulose solvent, the degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulosic raw materials should be reduced to a target DP (i.e., 1000−2000 DP). Instead of chemical treatment to lower the cotton linter DP, low-energy electron beam (EB) pretreatment plus mild chemical treatment were introduced to attain the target DP and to reduce the chemical dose. By using low-energy EB repetitively, minute control of cellulose DP will be possible.

Hexavalent Chromium Removal from Industrial Wastewater by Adsorption and Reduction onto Cationic Cellulose Nanocrystals

“…These differences can be explained by the cellulosic source used as a raw material. In the case of the application of cotton linters, this material has a low percentage of reactive amorphous regions, since its crystallinity index (Cr·I) is high (72–87%) [ 30 ]. Oppositely, eucalyptus cellulose used as raw material for softwood pulp production shows lower Cr·I values (52–58%) [ 31 ], explaining the increased conversion yield obtained by Campano et al On the other hand, the dialdehyde cellulose synthetized by Otoni, et al [ 32 ] under severe temperature conditions (50 °C) only reached 0.6 mmol·g −1 of aldehyde conversion, due to the low periodate dosage (4.6-fold lower).…”

High-performance cellulosic filament fibers prepared via dry-jet wet spinning from ionic liquids

“…Therefore, pulp degradation by EB irradiation was performed before the production of the spinning solution. This degradation process is based on the splitting of the cellulose chains by the EB (Seo et al 2013). The effect of EB radiation on cellulose has been evaluated in several studies (Emsley and Stevens 1994;Hwang et al 2020;Imamura et al 1972;Nakamura et al 1985).…”

Effects of electron beam treatment on cotton linter for the preparation of nanofibrillated cellulose

“…al. 11) , a lower degree of polymerization means lower strength properties of the cellulose materials. Researchers have been concerned that nanofibrillated cellulose produced by mechanical methods could lead to decrease in DP and viscosity.…”

“…It was known that the electron beam irradiation on cellulose fibers caused to decrease cellulose molecular weight, strength properties, thermal decomposition temperature, and crystallinity 11) .…”