Synthesis and Characterization of Functional Ethyl Cellulose-rosin Hybrid Membrane

A class of bio-based hybrid membranes named EC-g-MPA-ESO were prepared by the esterification reaction between the epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and the ethyl cellulose-rosin-based polymer (EC-g-MPA), synthesized by grafting rosin derivative maleopimaric acid (MPA) onto the ethyl cellulose (EC) backbone via esterification reaction. The chemical structure of EC-g-MPA was characterized by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, and UV-Vis spectrophotometer, by which have confirmed the successful preparation of EC-g-MPA. Then, TGA, DSC, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and tensile test were applied to investigate the thermal stability, curing properties, UV absorption properties, and mechanical properties of bio-based hybrid membrane EC-g-MPA-ESO with different ESO content. The results showed that the bio-based hybrid membrane exhibited UV absorption property. Compared with EC and EC-g-MPA, EC-g-MPA-ESO exhibited low glass transition temperature and excellent toughness. Mechanical test showed that when ESO content was 20% (based on the mass of EC-g-MPA), the blend film shows the best mechanical properties, and tensile strength reaches the maximum value of 12.07 MPa. Cyclic tensile test confirmed that the elastic restitution coefficient of EC-g-MPA-ESO increased with the increase of elongation. As the elongation reached 80%, the elastic restitution coefficient reached 54.6%, indicating that EC-g-MPA-ESO had good elastomer behavior and could be used as a thermoplastic elastomer. The hybrid membrane consists of cellulose matrix and rosin functional groups, and could find potential application in UV absorption and degradable plastic film.