A general approach to cellulosic material with controlled slow release of active substances by derivatization of a cellulosic carrier matrix with trifunctional triazines

Novel trifunctional triazines (“TATORT reagents”) for the modification of cellulosic material were prepared from cyanuric chloride. The compounds employ a cellulose-reactive anchor group for fixation, an active substance showing slow release properties, and a reactivity tuner to facilitate release control. According to this approach, humidity acts as an external trigger to “switch on” the slow-release. While the release-compounds are completely stable under dry conditions, the active substances are released simply by surrounding moisture. The reactivity tuner controls the rate of the release: by choosing an appropriate tuner, the concentration maximum can be set anytime between minutes and several weeks. The release kinetics depends mainly on the structure of reactivity tuner and active substance, but only insignificantly on the type of the (cellulosic) carrier matrix. Apart from the inherent limitation to phenolic and carboxylic active substances, the approach is quite general as the active substances may encompass wide ranges of compounds and applications.