Carboxymethylcellulose-diamine reticulation under very mild reaction conditions using DMTMM as a condensing agent

Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth. The possibility to use a biodegradable and biocompatible material as a candidate to replace petroleum-derived materials has prompted the scientific community to explore the possible modification of this biopolymer to give it specific properties to be exploited in various applications1. In this work the preliminary studies for the chemical modification of carboxymethylcellulose (sodium salt) (CMC) by amidation reaction have been reported. CMC is a cellulose derivate with film-forming capacity, and its chemical modification with 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-4-methyl-morpholinium chloride (DMTMM) as crosslinking agent to improve the hydrophobic and mechanical properties of the film has already been explored2. In this case the possibility of use a diamine compound with an alkyl chain as crosslinking agent has been explored with the purpose of further improve hydrophobic properties of the material as well as gas impermeability and mechanical strength. The reaction was carried out in water at room temperature for 20 h using hexamethylenediamine as a crosslinking agent in the presence of DMTMM as condensing agent in analogy to what reported in the literature3 (Fig. 1). The chemical modification has been confirmed by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy.