STUDIES OF CELLULOSE TRANSFORMATIONS USING 2ND DERIVATIVE FTIR SPECTROSCOPY

FTIR spectroscopy would be a much more valuable technique for obtaining information about cellulose and its structures it means could be found to resolve the numerous overlapping bands. One possible means is the use of derivative techniques. In this paper, second derivative FTIR spectroscopy is used to follow changes in the structure of a eucalypt wood cellulose arising from room temperature treatments with solutions of sodium hydroxide ranging in concentration from 0 to 20 percent, and in the structure of cotton cellulose from decrystallisation by ball milling. Many more bands in the derivative spectra were identified as being affected by the mercerisation of cellulose. The second derivative spectrum of decrystallised cotton cellulose was found to resemble that of cellulose more strongly, except in the OH stretching region where is resembled more that of the native cellulose.