Production and evaluation of high yield cellulose acetate using iodine as catalyst and purification of cotton linters

In this research, the cotton linter was used as raw material for high yield cellulose acetate production. The degree of substitution (DS) was almost 2-2.5 in acetylation stage. The desired dissolving pulp with purity higher than 98% and viscosity close to 712 ml/g was obtained through the soda pulping at 160 °C for 3 h. TCF bleaching was performed until 85% of ISO brightness was obtained. One of the most important factors in using high temperature and time for pulping process was the lignin existence in the dense seed bark of cotton which had most impurity in the linter. The final dissolved pulp showed the best results in yield and DS by using the acetylation process at 85 ˚C, 8% of iodine (based on OD pulp) as catalyst, and a weight ratio of acetic anhydride to the pulp (10:1) under stirring for 20 h. The results illustrated that the yield and DS of produced cellulose acetate were 64.44% and 2.3 respectively. The higher yield was achieved in acetylation stage compared to the previous studies due to higher purity of dissolving pulp and more suitable viscosity. The more concentration of iodine up to 12% in acetylation process led to increase the DS to 2.7 while the used of 8% of iodine showed the 5% decreasing in yield.