INFRARED AND RAMAN SPECTOSCOPIC STUDY OF ACETYLATION OF RAW COTTON FOR APPLICATION IN SORPTION OF OIL SPILLS

Abstract: Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) have been used to investigate the acetylation of raw cotton in an effort to develop hydrophobic, biodegradable, sorbent materials for cleaning up oil spills. Both Raman and FTIR spectroscopy indicate successful acetylation though the Raman bands are much weaker. A linear correlation was observed between the degree of acetylation measured by Raman spectroscopy and that obtained from FTIR data. Sorbent materials for cleaning up oil spills are presently being developed in our laboratory. A review of various porous materials that have been or are presently being developed for oil spill cleanup operations was published recently [1]. Natural sorbents such as rice straw, cotton, wood, wool fibres etc. have relatively high sorption capacity and biodegradability and are more economical to produce than the synthetic polymeric materials that are commonly used. Like the acetylation of rice straw that was reported previously [2], the acetylation of cotton is expected to yield a product that has a relatively high hydrophobicity and oil sorption capacity. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was previously reported [3] to be highly sensitive and reliable for the determination of the level of acetylation. The level of acetylation was determined as the ratio R between the intensity of the acetyl C=O stretching band at 1740-1745 cm-1 and the intensity of C-