Cellulose surface grafting with polycaprolactone by heterogeneous click-chemistry

This work deals with a new approach of grafting cellulose surface fibres by polycaprolactone macromolecular chains in heterogeneous conditions via click-chemistry. Thus, cellulose esters were prepared by reacting Avicel with undecynoic acid, in order to prepare cellulose substrate bearing multiple CC-terminated hairs. The prepared modified Avicel substrates were characterised by FTIR, XPS spectroscopy, elemental analyses and showed that the grafting have indeed occurred. The degree of substitution of the prepared cellulose esters was around 0.1. In parallel, polycaprolactone-diol (PCL) was converted to azido-derivative and the ensuing products characterised by FTIR and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. Both methods confirmed the success of such modification. Finally, cellulose esters were reacted with azido-PCL grafts in heterogeneous conditions through “click chemistry”. The thus prepared modified cellulose substrates were characterized by FTIR and XPS spectroscopy as well as elemental analyses. The three techniques confirmed the occurrence of the grafting. A weight gain of 20% was achieved.