Key characteristics such as renewability, abundance, biodegradability, relative ease for modification and their inherent physical and chemical properties make hemicelluloses suitable polysaccharides for development of new materials. Glucomannans and galactoglucomannans are the main hemicelluloses found in softwoods (up to 23 wt. %), while xylans represent up to 10 wt. %. The current biorefinery processes separate hemicelluloses as side-streams, making them a resource ready for new material applications. In this research we functionalize hemicelluloses, isolated from spruce, via esterification with acryloyl chloride and succinic anhydride. Acryloyl chloride enables the introduction of vinyl groups that can be used for free radical polymerization of vinyl monomers, (i.e. acrylic acid, methyl methacrylate, HEMA, etc.), capable to create cross-linked three-dimensional networks. Succinylated hemicelluloses are versatile materials that can be tailored for several applications, such as metal binding and formation of interpenetrating networks with other hydrophilic polymers, which can be used as binders, thickeners in food, disintegrants in excipients and coatings in paper. Glucomannans were succynilated and characterized regarding the degree of substitution and film forming ability. Further conjugation with tyramine allows fast enzymatic crosslinking.

Functional materials from spruce hemicelluloses: Crosslinkable xylans and glucomannans

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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