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Virginia Tech

Regioselective chlorination of cellulose esters

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Chemical modification of cellulose has been of growing interest, owing to the abundance and processing challenges of natural cellulose. To date, etherification and esterification are the most effective strategies to modify physicochemical properties of cellulose and append new functionalities. However, they typically require relatively harsh conditions, thus limiting introduction of new functional groups. An alternative strategy to synthesize novel cellulose derivatives is to append a good leaving group to cellulose backbone, followed by nucleophilic substitution reaction. Though tosylation and bromination of cellulose are frequently used, they have drawbacks such as chemo- and regioselectivity issues, high cost, and difficulty in purification. We have successfully developed a method to chemo- and regioselectively chlorinate cellulose esters using MsCl. Compared to bromination of cellulose typically used, this chlorination method has many advantages, including low cost of reagents and ease of separation. The chlorinated cellulose esters are useful intermediates for appending new functionalities by displacement reactions. We have synthesized a library of cellulose ester derivatives by this chlorination/nucleophilic substitution strategy, including cationic and anionic cellulose ester derivatives. These cellulose ester derivatives possess great potentialiii for various applications, including amorphous solid dispersion, tight junction opening, anionic drug delivery, and gas separation membranes.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
MS
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Chemistry
Department dc:contributor.department
Chemistry
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Gao, Chengzhe
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Edgar, Kevin J.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Matson, John B.
  • Esker, Alan R.
  • Turner, S. Richard

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:16789
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/96548

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Gao, Chengzhe. Regioselective chlorination of cellulose esters. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/96548