Synthesis and Characterization of carboxymethylcellulose from waste newspapers

Abstract

This study focus on the potential of conversion of cellulose isolated from newspaper to carboxymethylcellulsoe the wide applications in industries and drilling fluids. Alkaline extraction method was used in this study for extracting the cellulose from raw newspapers. The isolated cellulose was then etherified onto sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (NaCMC) by monochloroacetic acid and sodium hydroxide. Some reaction conditions were optimized including (temperature, solvent, and amount of sodium monochloroacetic acid) depending on the degree of substitution (DS). At optimum conditions the CMC product was found to have a degree of substitution (DS) of 0.733. The isolated cellulose and the as synthesizes CMC were characterized by FT-IR spectrometer. Pilot tests for the assynthesized CMC were carried out in the oil well field, and some rheological and physical properties were investigated including (apparent and plastic viscosity, yield point and filer loss) and hence the synthesized CMC classified as viscosifier.