ACCESSIBILITY AND CRYSTALLINITY OF CELLULOSE

The accessibility of cellulose samples having various degrees of crystallinity was studied with respect to molecules of water, lower primary alcohols, and lower organic acids. It was found that small water molecules have full access to non-crystalline domains of cellulose (accessibility coefficient alpha = 1). Molecules of the lowest polar organic liquids (methanol, ethanol, and formic acid) have partial access into the non-crystalline domains (alpha<1), and with increasing diameter of the organic molecules their accessibility to cellulose structure decreases. Accessibility of cellulose samples to molecules of various substances is a linear function of the coefficient a and the content of non-crystalline domains. The relationship between crystallinity (X) and accessibility (A) of cellulose to molecules of some liquids has been established as A = alpha (1-X). The water molecules were found to have greater access to cellulose samples than the molecules of the investigated organic liquids. The obtained results permit use of accessibility data to estimate the crystallinity of cellulose, to examine the structural state of non-crystalline domains, and to predict the reactivity of cellulose samples toward some reagents.