Continuous polymer fractionation of polysaccharides using highly substituted trimethylsilylcellulose

Trimethylsilylcellulose (TMSC) was prepared from commercial cellulose with a mixture of hexamethyldisilazane and chlorotrimethylsilane in the solvent system N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride. The soluble, highly silylated polymer (degree of substitution, DS 2.9) had a molar mass M, of 500 kg/mol and a molecular non-uniformity U = (M w /M n )- 1 of 2.9. In order to investigate the principal suitability of a continuous polymer fractionation for polysaccharides like cellulose derivatives and to obtain TMSC with different molecular weights and lower non-uniformity TMSC was fractionated by means of CPF (Continuous Polymer Fractionation), well-established in the field of synthetic polymers. …