Regeneration of fibres from alkaline solution containing enzyme-treated 3-allyloxy-2-hydroxypropyl substituted cellulose

The aim of this study was to regenerate fibres from the alkaline cellulose solution containing 3-allyloxy-2-hydroxypropyl substituents. Enzyme-treated cellulose was modified in alkaline aqueous tert-butanol (tBuOH) using allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) as the modification reagent. 3-allyloxy-2-hydroxypropyl substituted (AHP) enzyme-treated cellulose with DSA 0.05 was obtained. Enzyme-treated cellulose without (reference) and with substituents were dissolved in sodium zincate using the freezing-thawing cycle. The reference solution alone and the mixture solutions containing 10 or 25 % of the AHP cellulose were regenerated into cellulosic fibres using the wet spinning technique. The solutions containing 100 or 50 % of the AHP cellulose did not form fibres in acidic bath. The 10 % share of AHP cellulose did not affect the mechanical properties of the fibres (1.5 cN dtex-1), while the 25 % share decreased the tenacity slightly (1.3 cN dtex-1). Elongation of the fibres ranged from 18 to 22 %. The 10 and 25 % shares of AHP cellulose increased the water holding ability of fibres by 12 and 33 %, respectively. According to FESEM the fibre structures are composed of nanosized fibrils.