Iodine sorption,porosity, and wettability of carboxymethylcellulose of low degree of substitution

Cellulosic fabric was carboxymethylated by single-bath method for different durations. arrived at a maximum when plotted against the time of reaction. This might be interpreted by the dissolution of the highly substituted fractions. The fibrous character of the carboxymethylated samples remained unchanged, but the accessibility of the cellulose characterized by iodine sorption, porosity, and wettability changed significantly. The carboxymethylation had a complex effect on the investigated parameters: the values of accessibility were increasing initially, caused by opening the fibrillar structure, but decreasing later as the swollen structure was collapsing during air-drying. The studied properties were depending not only on the changes in but also on the reaction parameters.