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An investigation about the acetylation of cellulose fibers extracted by acidified sodium chlorite and sodium hydroxide from corn straw was undertaken to examine its potential for use as sorbents in oil spill cleanup. The extent of acetylation was measured by weight percent gain (WPG), which increased with the extent of reaction time and reaction temperature. According to WPG and oil sorption capacity of the acetylated cellulose fibers, the optimum acetylated condition for cellulose fibers was at 120 °C for 7 h. As shown by the adsorption kinetic experiments, more than 90% of the diesel oil was absorbed by the acetylated cellulose fibers within the first 5 min and the adsorption kinetic was consistent with the simulated-second-order model. Characterization of the acetylated and unmodified cellulose fibers was performed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and contact angle analysis. The results showed that the acetylated cellulose fibers were significantly oleophilic and did not get wet with water. Therefore, the acetylated cellulose fibers provided potential for the better utilization of agricultural residues as natural sorbents in oil cleanup.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.