Kinetic study of the hydrolysis of cellulose acetate in the pH range of 2–10

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>A kinetic study of the hydrolysis of 39.8 wt.‐% acetyl cellulose acetate has been made as a function of pH and temperature over the pH range of 2.2–10 and temperature range of 23–95°C. The hydrolysis reaction was carried out on highly porous membranes under quasihomogeneous conditions and the data have been treated as a pseudo‐first‐order reaction in acetyl concentration. The reaction can be represented by the equation <jats:styled-content>\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$k_1 {\rm = }\;k_{\rm H ^ +} \left[ {{\rm H^+}} \right]{\rm +}k_{\rm OH^-}\left[ {{\rm OH}^ - } \right] + k_{\rm H_2O} $\end{document}<jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/tex2gif-ueqn-1.gif" xlink:title="equation image" /></jats:styled-content>, and where <jats:styled-content>\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$k_{\rm H} ^ + {\rm = 5}{\rm .24}\;{\rm x 10}^{\rm 5} {\rm exp }\left\{ {{\rm &#x02010; 16}{\rm .4 x 10}^{\rm 3} /RT} \right\},{\rm }k_{{\rm OH}} ^ &#x02010; {\rm = 1}{\rm .55}\;{\rm x 10}^{\rm 4} {\rm exp }\left\{ {{\rm &#x02010; 8}{\rm .1 x 10}^{\rm 3} /RT} \right\}$\end{document}<jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/tex2gif-ueqn-2.gif" xlink:title="equation image" /></jats:styled-content>, and <jats:styled-content>\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$k_{\rm H_2O} {= 4.25\;\times 10}^{- 2} {\rm exp }\left\{ {{- 11.5 \times 10^3 /RT}} \right\}$\end{document}<jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/tex2gif-ueqn-3.gif" xlink:title="equation image" /></jats:styled-content> (where the quantities in brackets are activities of the ions shown).</jats:p>