Some further observations on the systems cellulose/trifluoroacetic acid/CH2Cl2 and cellulose triacetate/TFA/CH2Cl2

There is little or no trifluoroacetylation of cellulose dissolved in TFA-CH₂Cl₂ admixtures. Both cellulose and cellulose triacetate (CTA)are slowly degraded in the solvent. Cellulose forms a mesophase as low as 4%(w/w)concentration, but CTA has a much higher critical concentration, 20% (w/w), in TFA-CH₂Cl₂. The cellulose behaves as a rigid rod in TFA-CH₂Cl₂ (70/30v/v) and its persistence length calculated using the lattice model approximates its chain length, presumably due to extensive interaction with the solvent. As expected, due to low polymer-solvent interactions, the persistence length of CTA in TFA-CH₂Cl₂ is only one-fourth the chain length.