Cellulose hydrolysis catalyzed by acid originating from hydrogen chloride vapor was recently published by one of the authors. Rapid hydrolysis was shown to occur at room temperature, utilizing the water that resides on fibers under ambient conditions. Gaseous HCl adsorbs on the fibers, dissociates when in contact with water, and proceeds to catalyze the hydrolysis of cellulose down to levelling-off degree of polymerization (LODP). Here, we present what happens when different cellulose polymorphs are treated under HCl vapor. Cellulose II, cellulose IIII and cellulose IIIII exhibited all distinct degradation behaviors that were markedly different from the previously published results with cellulose I. Unlike with native cellulose, the kinetics of the other polymorphs did not correspond to those in a conventional liquid/solid system. Furthermore, it appeared that their degradation did not halt at the LODP value.

Hydrolysis assisted by hydrogen chloride vapor on different cellulose polymorphs

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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