Yeon Seok Park  Dae Hyuk Yang  Young Ho Kim

Vol. 54,  No. 4, pp. 268-277, Aug.  2017
10.12772/TSE.2017.54.268

hydroxyethylated cellulose (HEC) fiber 2-chloroethanol Cotton fiber add-on Isopropyl alcohol Alkali treatment two-step process

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In this study, a one-bath process and a two-step process for the synthesis of hydroxyethylated cellulose (HEC) fibers through the reaction of cotton fibers with 2-chloroethanol (CE) were carried out, and the results of both the processes were compared with each other. A cotton non-woven fabric was treated with a solution containing both sodium hydroxide and CE in water or aqueous isopropyl alcohol (IPA) solutions as a reaction medium in the one-bath process, and the add-ons after reaction and washing were obtained. In the two-step process, the cotton non-woven fabric was padded in a 20% NaOH solution with a constant wet pickup of 300% as the first step of alkali treatment, followed by a CE reaction in a reaction medium of water or aqueous IPA solutions. The effects of reaction conditions, such as IPA concentration of the reaction media, CE concentration, reaction time, washing media, on the reacted amounts, i.e., add-ons of CE of the prepared HEC fibers were analyzed. Results showed that the two-step process is much more effective for obtaining high add-ons of HEC than the one-bath process. Aqueous IPA solution is also more effective than water as a reaction medium. The reacted amounts of the prepared HEC fibers increased on increasing both the IPA concentration in the reaction medium and the CE concentration. However, damage to HEC fibers also increased on increasing the add-ons of the reaction. The reaction for the synthesis of HEC by a two-step process is the most effective when the mol amount of NaOH in the first treatment is similar to that of CE in the second treatment.