Methylcellulose

Methyl cellulose, abbreviated as MC, also known as cellulose methyl ether, is a nonionic cellulose ether. It has the appearance of white, light yellow or light gray powder, granular or fibrous, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic and non-irritating, hygroscopic.

Methylcellulose is soluble in glacial acetic acid, but insoluble in organic solvents such as ethanol, ether, acetone, and chloroform. Methylcellulose has unique thermal gel properties. When dissolved in hot water above 50°C, it can Rapidly disperses and swells to form a gel. When the water temperature drops below 50°C, it will dissolve in water to form an aqueous solution. Aqueous solutions and gel forms can interact with each other.

The preparation of methyl cellulose uses natural cellulose such as cotton pulp and wood pulp as raw materials, and is treated with alkali (such as sodium hydroxide, etc.) to obtain alkali cellulose, and then etherified by adding methyl chloride. Reaction at a certain temperature, after washing, neutralization, dehydration, drying and other processes, according to product purity and technical content, methyl cellulose can be divided into pharmaceutical grade methyl cellulose, food grade methyl cellulose, general-purpose methyl cellulose and other products.

Methylcellulose is resistant to acids and alkalis, oils, heat, microorganisms and light. It has good thickening, film-forming, water-retaining, emulsifying, wetting, dispersing, and adhesive properties.

Methylcellulose has a wide range of downstream applications, from coatings, inks, adhesives to textiles, printing and dyeing to medicine and food processing. Many industries have application requirements for products and have relatively broad development space. After long-term continuous development, my country’s methyl cellulose industry has formed a certain scale, and the product range is becoming more and more perfect, but it needs to be more perfect in terms of scale and comprehensive development!