•Gemini surfactant/JR400 showed strong electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions.•A Narrower precipitation region, lower CAC and CMC values were obtained.•This surfactant/cellulose mixture could be used as a potential drug delivery system.Due to the extensive application of cationic cellulose in cosmetic, drug delivery and gene therapy, combining the improvement effect of surfactant–cellulose complexes, to investigate the properties of cellulose in aqueous solution is an important topic from both scientific and technical views. In this study, the phase behavior, solution properties and microstructure of Gemini surfactant sodium 5-nonyl-2-(4-(4-nonyl-2-sulfonatophenoxy)butoxy)phenyl sulfite (9-4-9)/cationic cellulose (JR400, the ammonium groups are directly bonded to the hydroxyethyl substituent with a degree substitution of 0.37) mixture was investigated using turbidity, fluorescence spectrophotometer and shear rheology techniques. As a control, the interaction of corresponding monovalent surfactant, sodium 2-ethoxy-5-nonylbenzenesulfonate (9-2) with JR400 in aqueous solution was also studied. Experimental results showed that 9-4-9/JR400 mixture has lower critical aggregation concentration (CAC) and critical micelle concentration (CMC) (about one order of magnitude) than 9-2/JR400 mixture. A low concentration of Gemini surfactant 9-4-9 appeared to induce an obvious micropolarity and viscosity value variation of the mixture, while these effects required a high concentration of corresponding monovalent one. Furthermore, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements illuminated the formation and collapse procedure of network structure of the 9-4-9/JR400 mixture, which resulted in the increase and decrease of viscosity. These results suggest that the molecular structure of the surfactant has a great effect on its interaction with cationic cellulose. Moreover, the Gemini surfactant/cationic cellulose mixture may be used as a potencial stimuli-responsive drug delivery vector which not only load hydrophilic drugs, but also deliver hydrophobic substances.

A palladium catalyst supported on 2-aminopyridine functionalized cellulose was synthesized and fully characterized by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. This catalyst can be applied in the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of aryl halides with arylboronic acids in 50% ethanol to afford biaryls in good yields, and easily recycled by simple filtration after reaction without the loss of metal Pd.

A magnetically separable trifunctional nanocatalyst Fe3O4@SiO2–NH2 was synthesized and characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XRD, TGA, and EA. The designed nanocatalyst was found to be highly active for selective synthesis of nitroalkenes with nitromethane and aromatic aldehyde through cooperative trifunctional catalysis of primary amine, secondary amine and Si–OH groups on the surface of the catalyst. Under the optimized conditions, various representative substrates were extended to obtain the corresponding products in moderate or excellent yields. After the reaction, the trifunctional nanocatalyst was easily recovered and recycled by applying an external magnet. In addition, a possible cooperative trifunctional catalysis mechanism was also proposed.

•NHC ligand was introduced onto cellulose backbone to explore an avenue for polysaccharide-based catalysts.•Cellulose-supported NHC-Pd complex can efficiently promote Suzuki coupling reactions.•Catalysts can be recovered by easy filtration and can be used several times.A cellulose-supported N-methylimidazole-palladium catalyst (Cell-NHC-Pd) was synthesized and used for Suzuki cross-coupling reactions between aryl halides and phenylboronic acids to create the corresponding coupling products in good to excellent yields. Moreover, the catalyst is easily recovered using only a few cycles of simple filtration.

In this work, the interactions between cationic cellulose (PQ-10) and anionic surfactant (SDBS) in aqueous media were investigated by turbidity, electric conductivity, steady-state fluorescence, shear rheology and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. Results indicated that precipitation appeared near the charge neutrality point, and the size of precipitation region widened with increasing PQ-10 concentration (0.57–1.72 mM for 0.05% PQ-10, and 2.30–17.22 mM for 0.5% PQ-10). The specific conductivity values of SDBS in the presence of PQ-10 were higher than that of pure SDBS over the whole concentration range under current experimental conditions. The aggregation number of SDBS kept constant in the flat region of the micropolarity curve (0.86 mM–1.43 mM). The structural transformation of the mixtures was monitored visually by TEM. As SDBS concentration increased, the morphologies of the mixtures changed gradually from branched wormlike aggregates to interconnected networks, finally the networks collapsed.Highlights► Network formed in the PQ-10/SDBS system was observed by visual measure (TEM), which has not been reported previously. ► Micropolarity was examined in the whole phase region rather than in a limited region as reported in other literature. ► The relationship between micropolarity and the aggregation number was conducted intensively.

This present article employs four anionic Gemini surfactants with different spacer groups and investigates their physicochemical and aggregation properties. The critical micelle concentration (CMC), surface tension at CMC (γCMC) and C20 of these surfactants have been investigated using the du Nouy ring method. The aggregation number (N) was determined with intrinsic fluorescence quenching method using pyrene as a fluorescence probe and benzophenone as a quencher. Results show that these anionic Gemini surfactants have lower CMC and C20 values compared with those conventional ones and show higher surface activity. As expected, the spacer plays an important role in the aggregation properties of Gemini surfactants. Under experimental conditions, Gemini B–D with an alkoxylated group as spacer has a lower CMC and a higher aggregation number than Gemini A with methylene as spacer. For Gemini B–D, the CMC and aggregation number values decrease with the increasing flexible spacer length. The micropolarity also affects the aggregation of the present anionic Gemini surfactants. The micropolarity of micelle becomes low when the concentration of surfactants increases. Aggregation numbers of surfactants increase and fluorescence intensities decrease with the increasing concentration of NaCl. These results will help us to understand the relationship between the architectures of Gemini surfactants and their various properties in aqueous solution.

•NHC functionalized CMC-supported Pd catalyst was well-designed and synthesized.•The catalyst exhibited excellent activity and stability in Suzuki cross-coupling reactions.•A plausible trifunctional catalyst complex was proposed.In this paper, N-Methylimidazole functionalized carboxymethylcellulose-supported palladium nanoparticles (CMC-NHC-Pd) was synthesized and characterized by TEM, SEM, EDX, CP/MAS 13C NMR, FT-IR, TGA, XRD, and XPS analysis. The prepared nanoparticles can be used as an environmentally-friendly and trifunctional catalyst. The well-designed CMC supported palladium nanoparticles catalyst with polydentate ligands is also stable and efficient for Suzuki cross-coupling reactions under mild conditions through the cooperative interaction of trifunctional capturing sites with palladium, −COO−, −OH and N-Methylimidazole. This catalyst can be readily recovered by a few cycles of simple filtration. This work proposes a plausible trifunctional catalyst complex.