Synthesis and Characterization of Carboxymethyl Cellulose from (Date palm) Phoenix dactylifera L. Leaves

Abstract

The aim of this study was to synthesize and characterize carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) from Phoenix dactylifera L. )date palm( leaves by etherification reaction using sodium mono chloroacetic acid (MCAA) and sodium hydroxide. The optimum reaction parameters were found to be 55 ⁰C, 30% sodium concentration, 3g MCAA/1g cellulose and 4 hours reaction time to give 0.77 as the highest degree of substitution (DS). FTIR shows that successful isolation of cellulose and the synthesized CMC has shown the characteristic peaks at 1726, 1602 and 1419 cm-1 that are attributed to carboxymethyl substituent. The CMC product is water soluble.