Abstract
In this manuscript, the scalability and recyclability of the catalytic transesterifications of polysaccharides with 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EmimOAc) as both the solvent and the organocatalyst were evaluated. For the organocatalytic transesterifications of cellulose with EmimOAc, EmimOAc was recycled four times without an obvious decrease in its catalytic activity, and the recovery ratio of EmimOAc was sufficiently high (at least 96 wt%). To show the applicability of EmimOAc-catalyzed transesterifications, the EmimOAc-catalyzed cellulose modification was expanded to a gram-scale reaction with various polysaccharide sources, such as pulps, rayon, xylan, pullulan, and dextrin, which provides the corresponding polysaccharide esters with a practically perfect degree of substitution values.
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Acknowledgements
This research was promoted by the COI program ‘Construction of next-generation infrastructure using innovative materials—Realization of a safe and secure society that can coexist with the Earth for centuries’—supported by MEXT and JST. This study was also supported in part by the Advanced Low Carbon Technology Research and Development Program (ALCA) of the JST and the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) from the JST.
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Van Nguyen, Q., Nomura, S., Hoshino, R. et al. Recyclable and scalable organocatalytic transesterification of polysaccharides in a mixed solvent of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate and dimethyl sulfoxide. Polym J 49, 783–787 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2017.49
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2017.49
