Novel hydrophobic hemicelluloses: Synthesis and characteristic

Novel hydrophobic hemicelluloses possessing hydrophobic groups were prepared by the benzylation of wheat straw hemicelluloses with benzyl chloride under the presence of catalyst in an ethanol/water system. In particular, the progress of the benzylation reaction was studied as a function of the volume ratio of ethanol/water from 4:1 to 6:4, the molar ratio of NaOH/anhydroxylose unit in hemicelluloses from 0.6:1 to 1.5:1, the molar ratio of benzyl chloride/anhydroxylose unit in hemicelluloses from 0.5:1 to 2.0:1, reaction temperature 50–80 °C, and reaction time 4–20 h. Benzylated hemicelluloses with the low degree of substitution from 0.09 to 0.35 were obtained depending on the experimental conditions. The incorporation of benzyl groups into the backbone of hemicelluloses was confirmed by FT-IR and 13C NMR spectroscopies. The thermal stability increased after the modification of hemicelluloses due to the introduction of benzyl groups. The introduction of benzyl groups endows hemicelluloses with the hydrophobicity, which could be potentially applied in plastic industries.