5.1. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy
The FTIR spectra of the cellulose films exhibits the absorption bands of the characteristic functional groups of cellulose esters that are dried in the conventional oven and vacuum oven were similar which are shown in the Fig. 1. The strongest evidence of successful acylation is the appearance of an absorption band at 1740 cm–1 that corresponds to the stretching of the ester carbonyl (> C = O) group, and the band at 720 cm–1 is characteristic for linearly connected –CH2– groups (–(CH2)4– rocking) (Singh et al. 2014). Peaks at 2924 cm− 1 and 2854 cm− 1 show the successful introduction of alkyl chains intensities correspond to asymmetric and symmetric stretching of the methylene group of the fatty long chains. The esterification of the cellulose hydroxyl groups is clearly indicated by the decreasing intensity of the wide peak at 3472 cm− 1 that corresponds to the stretching vibrations of the OH group, indicates that a large amount of –OH groups were substituted (Crépy et al. 2011). Similar results have been obtained for cellulose esters irrespective of the substituent chain length (Kallakas et al. 2023; Tarasova et al. 2023).
5.2 Contact Angle measurement.
The cellulose ester films were characterised by static contact angle measurement to determine the hydrophobic or the hydrophilic nature, reported in the Table 2. The contact angles for the films dried in the conventional oven ranged between 80° to 121° Fig. 2 and for the vacuum oven dried thin films the contact angles ranged between 85° to 124°, depending on the fatty acid chain length and in addition with the influence of the drying condition. The thin films are considered hydrophobic depending on the fact that the contact angles between water and the cellulosic films are at least 90°(Bhaladhare and Das 2022). Hence, the cellulose ester films are deemed to be hydrophobic. However, the higher contact angles are seen in the vacuum dried cellulosic ester thin films. It is known that long aliphatic side chain is hydrophobic, this is justified with high contact angles of cellulose palmitate and cellulose laurate.
Table 2
Average contact angle measurement of cellulose ester films.
Ester | RO (°) | VO (°) |
CDA | 80 (± 5) | 85(± 8) |
CL | 106(± 2) | 113(± 3) |
CP | 121(± 2) | 124(± 3) |
5.3. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD).
The film structure has been characterised by XRD to detect the structure of the cellulose ester films. The X- ray diffraction profile of all the film samples is shown in Fig. 3. All the samples regardless of the drying condition indicate a peak of 2q = 12°- 24°. The intra and intermolecular hydrogen bonds occur in cellulose through hydroxyl groups, which results in various ordered crystalline arrangements (Sheltami et al. 2012). According to Miller indices, peaks around 2q = 16.5° and 22.5° represent (110), and (200) crystallographic planes of cellulose I, respectively (French and Santiago Cintrón 2013). As seen from Fig. 3 the diffractogram indicates two broad peaks for CDA at 9.32°, and 18.72°. Similarly, the peaks at 9.56°, 19.68°, and 28.69° can be seen for the cellulose esters CL and CP. From the data plot we do not notice any significant effect of the drying conditions on the structure of the films. The peak around 20° is ascribed to (002) of the plane, exhibiting characteristic amorphous phase (Li and Renneckar 2011; Fan et al. 2013). The weak peak at 28.69° of (040) and 9.56° at (101) reflection appear in CL and CP. The peak at 20° of (002) is broad in CDA and narrower in CL and CP indicating a higher degree of crystallinity (Montane et al. 1998). The diffraction peaks that appear around 10° in CDA could be indexed to crystalline peaks of CTA II modification (Sun and Sun 2002; Das et al. 2014). The diffraction peak at 20° is more intense and the relative intensity has increased, this observation could reveal a better-defined crystalline domain. Lateral chain order is indicated by the decrease of the peak width (2theta = 16°-24°) as the side chain increased as seen in the wide-angle region of the diffractogram a better-defined crystalline domain.
5.4 Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)
The dynamic thermogravimetric curves of cellulose ester films prepared from [mTBNH][OAc] are given below in Fig. 4. The analysis showed thermal decomposition process involving rapid loss of weight and towards the end the decomposition zone where the constant weight represents the carbonization of the material. The initial decomposition temperature at 5% weight loss (\(\:{T}_{5\%}\)) and the maximum weight loss temperature (\(\:{T}_{d}\)), finally the char residue at 600°C are recorded in the following Table 4. (\(\:{T}_{d1}\)) is the initial step of pyrolysis of volatile compounds.
Table 3
Thermal stabilities of the cellulose fatty chain esters.
Sample | T 5% °C | Td1 °C | Td °C | Char % |
CDA | RO | 263.2 | 201.1 | 360.8 | 12.2 |
VO | 245.0 | 210.6 | 362.0 | 15.3 |
CL | RO | 212.5 | 232.0 | 369.2 | 7.9 |
VO | 212.7 | 230.8 | 367.3 | 6.3 |
CP | RO | 303.4 | - | 360.6 | 2.6 |
VO | 305.0 | - | 354.4 | 0.9 |
The main degradation range between 250–350°C is due to the crystalline phase degradation of cellulose(Sonia and Priya Dasan 2013). The ester groups caused the formation of a specific mass loss in the range between 140–250°C due to decomposition of the alkyl chains grafted to cellulose laurate (CL) and cellulose di acetate (CDA) but the similar trend is absent in case of cellulose palmitate (CP). Mass loss at 5wt% indicates a noticeable difference in the temperature of CDA with the VO dried sample with the mass loss at 245°C compared to the RO sample at 263°C. The cellulose esters CDA and CL two separate degradation steps with initial pyrolysis peak of CL shifted to higher temperature around 230°C compared to CDA at 200°C. The initial pyrolysis peak could be attributed to the degradation of the grafted fatty acid side chains (Jebrane et al. 2017), the higher peak of CL can be attributed to the longer chain length compared to CDA with a shorter chain length. In all the samples the main degradation peak of cellulose backbone is seen around 360°C (Jandura et al. 2000) (Freire et al. 2006; Uschanov et al. 2011). Similar degradation temperatures have been observed in the literature with functionalised celluloses fatty acid chlorides (Almasi et al. 2015).
5.5. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
SEM has been characterized to study the film formation and structure. The Fig. 5 shows the cross-sectional images of the cellulose ester thin films. From the images, less structures are observed comparing the VO and RO and surfaces indicate dense structure in the film formation. All the sample indicate a top layer which is exposed to the air. The thickness of the films after drying depends on the thickness of the homogeneous solution during casting. The kinetic phase separation during evaporation indicates a polymer lean and a polymer rich phase. The cross-section images reveal that the samples have a homogeneous film composition, and no significant structures are seen in the films prepared which could also be attributed to the long and controlled evaporation times. As the solvent evaporates from the membrane system, the chains lose mobility and adjust to the configurations(Du et al. 2009). Longer evaporation time leads to formation of asymmetric structures with denser layer.
Table 4
Thickness of cross section of films.
Ester | Thickness |
µm |
CDA | RO | 116 |
VO | 115.5 |
CL | RO | 59.5 |
VO | 60 |
CP | RO | 57.5 |
CO | 58 |
5.6. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)
The surface morphology and the roughness values of the cellulose ester films are listed in the table 6. The darker areas as observed are associated with depressions on the surface of the films and the lighter areas are the elevations. Surface morphology is characterised by root mean square (Sq), mean roughness (Sa) and the difference between high peaks and low valleys (Z). Observations from the AFM indicated nodular structure, the polymer-rich phase having less ability to deform and thus merge and cause nodular structure due to chain entanglements, while the polymer poor phase become the cavities/depressions(Zhang et al. 2002). These nodules are the influencing factor for the roughness of the surface. The effect of evaporation environment is depicted clearly by comparing the surface images and the surface roughness parameters.
The average depression size concentration is larger over the area of the films dried in the vacuum oven as compared to the films dried in the conventional oven as seen in the CDA, CP and CL films. The membrane surface, that is the nodule size and distribution could be attributed to the evaporation conditions and environment. The literature reports, with the increase with the nodule size, the surface roughness of the membranes tend to increase(Khulbe et al. 1998). The influence of evaporation environment on the surface morphology of the films with average roughness lower and the concentration of the depression area is marginally higher with the vacuum dried samples.
However, no nodular structure is seen on the surface of CL films in both dried in the vacuum and the conventional oven. But in this case surface roughness cannot be in proportion to the nodule size, but the depression and the elevation regions could account for the surface roughness. CL on the other hand has a noticeable difference between the conventional oven dried sample and the vacuum dried sample, film surface indicates accumulated area of elevation and depressions. The regions elevation is significant in the vacuum dried film, the isolated nodules have distinct boundaries, and the interstitial regions can be clearly identified. It could be possible that polymer chains present in the interstitial regions are randomly distributed compared to polymer chains present in the nodules(Khulbe et al. 1998). Although, a couple of samples indicate circular concentration of peaks which attributed to the released air bubbles during the long drying process.
Table 5 AFM surface roughness values of the cellulose fatty chain esters.
Sample | RMS roughness (Sq)(nm) | Mean roughness (Sa)(nm) | Max Z range (nm) |
Drying Method | RO | VO | RO | VO | RO | VO |
CDA | 8.12 | 6.55 | 5.83 | 4.71 | 76.39 | 82.40 |
CL | 3.42 | 5.50 | 2.32 | 2.76 | 43.24 | 123.24 |
CP | 3.09 | 2.14 | 2.30 | 1.66 | 31.07 | 37.19 |