Synthesis and Characterization of Carboxymethylcellulose from Wheat Stalks

Abstract

This study focuses on conversion of cellulose isolated from wheat stalks to carboxy methyl cellulose(CMC).This material has wide industrial applications especially as adrilling fluidin petroleum wells. Alkaline extraction method was used for isolating the cellulose from wheat stalks the isolated cellulose was etherified onto sodium CMC (Na- CMC) by monochloro acetic acid (MCAA) in the presence of NaOH.Some reaction conditions were optimized,such as concentration of NaOH, solvent type, amount of MCAA and reaction time,for the production of CMC material of higher degree of substitution (DS).At optimum conditions, the as-synthesized CMC material yield was found to have a DS of 0.39. The isolated cellulose and the as-synthesized CMC were characterized by FT-IR spectrometer and X-ray diffraction. The results indicated successful introduction of carboxy methyl group to the isolated cellulose. Rheological studies were conducted for the as-synthesized CMC and some commercially available carboxymethylated cellulosic materials such as PAC-LV and PAC-RV. The results showed that, the viscosity of assynthesized CMC material is higher than that of PAC-LV but lower than that of PACRV. The variation could be attributed to the lower value of DS (0.39) of the synthesized material. However, the results of apparent viscosity, plastic viscosity, yield points and filter loss together, demonstrated that synthesized CMC material could be classified as viscosifier rather than fluid loss controller.