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Dye adsorption revisited: application of the cationic dye adsorption method for the quantitative determination of the acidic surface groups of nanocellulose materials

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A Correction to this article was published on 01 August 2022

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Abstract

The surface carboxyl and sulfate groups on cellulose nanowhiskers were quantified via the adsorption of toluidine blue O (TBO), a cationic dye. Here, simple and rapid protocols, such as mixing the nanowhisker suspensions with a dye solution, separating the supernatants via centrifugation, and determining the excess dye concentration via visible light absorbance techniques, were used to obtain reproducible results comparable with those obtained via titration. In addition to facilitating the discrete quantification of the sulfate and carboxyl groups, the TBO adsorption method enabled carboxyl quantification in the presence of mercapto groups, which was difficult to achieve via titration. The adsorption of TBO onto the carboxyl groups was completed within 30 min, enabling the rapid treatment of many samples within a short period.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Hyogo Okuda, Minami Nakajima, Takafumi Shimizu, Torino Kosaka, Teppei Ueda, Naoya Ohsawa, Yoichi Sasaki, Itsuki Takebe, Yasumasa Honmura, Erika Kotaki, and Takahiro Suzuki (Shinshu University) for conducting the titration experiments of the various nanowhisker samples. Yusuke Okada and Sachiko Yoshioka (Shinshu University) are acknowledged for their kind assistance in X-ray diffraction and FT-IR measurements, respectively. The author acknowledges DKS Co. Ltd. for kind donation of the TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofiber sample.

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  1. Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Tokida 3–15–1, Ueda, Nagano prefecture, 386–8567, Japan

    Jun Araki

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Correspondence to Jun Araki.

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Araki, J. Dye adsorption revisited: application of the cationic dye adsorption method for the quantitative determination of the acidic surface groups of nanocellulose materials. Cellulose 28, 7707–7715 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04035-x

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