Synthesis and characterization of quaternized bacterial cellulose prepared in homogeneous aqueous solution

In this work, bacterial cellulose (BC) was activated by ethylenediamine (EDA) and then dissolved in lithium chloride/N,N-dimethylacetamide (LiCl/DMAc) aqueous solutions. The resulting transparent solution was cast on a glass plate to prepare regenerated BC. Then cationic BC was prepared homogeneously by the reaction between regenerated BC and 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl-trimethyl ammonium chloride (CHPTAC) in a NaOH/urea aqueous solution. Structure and properties of the BC and its products were characterized by different techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results showed that there was no significant difference between the structures of BC, activated BC and regenerated BC. The effects of different temperature and molar ratio of CHPTAC to anhydroglucose unit (AGU) on the degree of substitution (DS) value were examined. The DS values of cationic BC ranged between 0.21 and 0.51.