Sulfonation of Liquefied Wood and Suspension Property of Its Product in Seed Coating Agent

Abstract

For the utilization of product from wood liquefaction by ionic liquid, the liquefied product was sulfonated by chlorosulfonic acid as a sulfonating agent, and the product of wood liquefaction sulfonation (WLS) was obtained. The characterization of WLS is determined using FTIR, and the strong absorption peak of sulfonic group is clear. The suitable reaction conditions are as follows, the mass ratio of chlorosulfonic acid to liquefied wood and formaldehyde to liquefied wood are 0.8:1 and 0.9:1, reaction temperature of sulfonation and condensation are at 85°C and 90°C, reaction time of sulfonation and condensation are for 2.5 and 3.0 hours. When the solution concentration of WLS is 15 g · L⁻¹, the surface tension is 46.9 mN · m⁻¹. In the formula of seed coating agent, WLS shows better suspension property and less change of viscosity in impact test than that of conventional surfactants, also, it can generate synergy effects with the other surfactants to make higher suspending rate in binary or ternary mixed system than that in single system.

Keywords:

• Ionic liquid
• liquefaction
• seed coating agent
• sulfonation
• suspension
• wood

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support received from the Natural Science Fund Key Project of Anhui Educational Committee of China (contract: 2006KJ045A) and the Natural Science Fund Project of Anhui Province of China (contract: 070415272X).