Alpha cellulose carboxymethylation

The AC may react with methyl chloride or alpha-chloroacetic acid via a direct displacement reaction (eq. 2). The derivatives would be methji cellulose < carboxymethyl cellulose. 

The raw materials are cotton linters, soft wood pulp or dissolving pulp. They must be high in alpha - cellulose content, free of metals and uniformly absorb water and the NaOH solution. The other starting materials include alkylene oxides and alkyl chlorides for the preparation of nonionic cellulose ethers and sodium monochloroacetate for anionic types such as sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. 

C. W. Wharton, E. M. Crook, and K. Brocklehurst. The nature of the perturbation of the Michaelis constant of the bromelain-catalysed hydrolysis of alpha-N-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester consequent upon attachment of bromelain to O-(carboxymethyl)-cellulose. Eur. J. Biochem. 6 572 (1968). 

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