Xylan diacetate

High quality xylan diacetate is insoluble in most reagents although the acetates of degraded xylan become progressively more soluble as the molecular weight decreases. Solubility in pyridine first appears, while with further decrease in molecular size, solubility in chloroform occurs. Because of their insolubility, the acetates of undegraded xylan cause filtration difficulties when present in commercial cellulose acetates. 

Whistler has reviewed the behavior of xylan on acetylation, and notes that dry xylan is acetylated with difficulty. Under reaction conditions which avoid drying, xylan is acetylated readily, to yield a diacetate which is insoluble in most solvents. Because of its insolubility, xylan diacetate, especially if the D. P. is relatively high, can cause filtration difficulties and haziness in commercial cellulose acetates. 

D-xylose on hydrolysis with dilute nitric acid. Percival and Chanda7 isolated a xylan from the same plant. They found that the methylated xylan produced on hydrolysis 2-methyl-D-xylose, 2,3-dimethyl-D-xylose, 2,4-dimethyl-D-xylose and 2,3,4-trimethyl-D-xylose. From this and from the results of periodate oxidation, Percival and Chanda considered that the polysaccharide contains 1 — 3 and 1 —> 4 linkages with a non-reducing endgroup (yielding the 2,3,4-trimethyl-D-xylose) for every 20-21 D-xylose units. They considered that this xylan was not a mixture of 1 —> 3 and 1 —> 4 linked polysaccharides because careful fractionation of its diacetate and dimethyl ether failed to establish any polymer heterogeneity. Barry, Dillon, Hawkins and O Colla74 confirmed the conclusion of Percival and Chanda. 

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