Enzymic degradation of hydroxyethyl cellulose and analysis of the substitution pattern along the polysaccharide chain

Abstract The enzymatic degradation behavior of hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) samples with different molar substitutions (MS) values was investigated. The changes in the molecular structure of HEC treated with enzymatic approach in comparison to the native HEC were studied through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques and kinetics of degradation was studied by viscometry. The cleavage of HEC chains could be observed from FTIR and kinetics results. Moreover, reduce in molecular weight (Mw) of polymer and liberated glucose concentration was investigated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis during enzymatic degradation. And all these results indicated that HEC with lower MS is more susceptible to degrade and provided a better understanding of the mechanism operating during enzymatic hydrolysis of HEC by cellulases. Furthermore, by complete degradation and quantification of liberated glucose, the substitution index (SI) and the distribution of substituents along the HEC chain were investigated. The results suggested that the HEC samples differed in hydroxyethyl molar substitutions (MS) and possible distribution of the hydroxyethyl groups. Impressively, our efforts established a facile analytical method for the elucidation of the distribution of substituents along the HEC chain.