• Shaohuang Chen
  • Ning Yue
  • Mei Cui
  • Anastasia Penkova
  • Renliang Huang
  • Wei Qi
  • Zhimin He
  • Rongxin Su

TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) possess lots of attractive properties. However, recycling of TEMPO is desirable because of ecological and economic demands. In this study, a novel strategy integrating direct reuse and extraction recovery of TEMPO was developed. 50 % of filtrates after TEMPO oxidation were directly reused and half of the fresh TEMPO was added to maintain a constant dosage, the obtained CNFs within 2 cycles shared similar carboxylate contents, crystallinity, and homogeneous width compared to the original ones. Furthermore, TEMPO in another 50 % of filtrates was extracted by ethyl acetate followed by distillation. The CNFs produced using the extracted TEMPO had almost the same properties compared to those of original ones, suggesting a negligible loss of activity of the recovered catalyst. Compared to the traditional route, the combined strategy exhibited a 31.3 % reduction in production costs, which enables clean and cost-effective production of CNFs and shows a promising industrial feasibility.

Original languageEnglish
Article number119803
JournalCarbohydrate Polymers
Volume294
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Oct 2022

    Research areas

  • Catalyst recycling, Cellulose nanofibrils, Nanocellulose, TEMPO, Oxidation-Reduction, Cellulose, Cyclic N-Oxides, Nanofibers, Cellulose, Oxidized

    Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Organic Chemistry

ID: 99528860