Homogeneous synthesis of azidodeoxycellulose

A new high energetic bonder intermediate ȧzidodeoxycellulose for solid propellant was synthesized from the raw material cotton linters under homogeneous conditions. The process of preparing azidodeoxycellulose includes two steps. The first is the tosylation of cellulose with tosylchloride using triethylamine as catalyst and the dimethylacetamide/LiCl system as solvent to obtain cellulose tosylate with certain ester number. The second is nucleophilic substitution reaction of the cellulose tosylate with NaN₃ in DMSO to obtain azidodeoxycellulose with the degree of substitution (DS) of 0. 6-1.0. The effects of cellulose tosylate/DMSO ratio, reaction temperature and reaction time on the value of DS of azidodeoxycellulose were discussed. The samples were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and X-ray diffraction.