13C nuclear magnetic resonance studies of cellulose acetate

¹³C-NMR spectra of ring carbons and O-acetyl carbonyl carbons of cellulose acetate (CA) in dimethyl sulfoxide-d₆ were analyzed. The CA samples with the degree of substitution (DS) ranging from 0.84 and 1.91 were prepared by homogeneous acetylation of cellulose with acetic anhydride in a 10% LiCl/dimethyl acetamide solvent. It was found that the use of these low DS samples permitted easier assignments not only of the ring carbon but also of the O-acetyl carbonyl carbon signals. The assignments were confirmed by comparing with the ¹H-NMR spectra of the samples obtained by complete acetylation of the corresponding CA samples with acetyl-d₃ chloride. Two methods for determining the distribution of O-acetyl groups of CA, i.e., the relative DS at the three different types of hydroxyl groups, were developed. One is based on the measurements of the relative intensities of the signals for the ring carbons and the other is based on the measurements of the relative intensities of the signals for the O-acetyl carbonyl carbons.