Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Enzyme-Assisted Modification Of Cellulose/Chitin Fibers With Nipaam, Anamaria Irimia, Emilia Csiszar, Marius Dobromir, Florica Doroftei, Cornelia Vasile

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Coating processes are applied in order to improve coating adhesion and resistance to degradation. Covalently bound organic coatings rather than merely physically bound ones assure stable modification. In this study a novel two-step process was developed to modify cellulose/chitin mix fibers consisting of enzymatic activation with a commercial cellulase, followed by a coupling reaction with N-isopropylacrylamide (or poly (N-isopropylacrylamide)) in the presence of 1-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS). Both enzyme-activated and subsequently modified samples were characterized by ATR-FTIR, XPS, and SEM. All obtained results confirm the structural and morphological changes of the fiber surface after the application of the two-step …