Obtención de Acetato de Celulosa a Partir de Colillas de Cigarrillo

The solid waste is considered one of the main factors of environmental impacts, which has led to the investigation of various methodologies for the use of waste. Cigarette butts are considered the most common type of waste on today, representing around 45% of the total content of landfills and dumps. With the aforementioned, the investigation of obtaining a biopolymer from the waste of cigarette butts was proposed, that consisted of separating the components that are paper and cotton (cellulose), and then carry out a process acetylation of the cellulose to obtain the acetate and to verify it by FTIR spectroscopy; In addition, the paper (cellulose acetate) was dosed with acetylated cellulose in order to have a more stable acetylation process. Subsequently, films were made with different dosages of cellulose acetate obtained with starch, glycerin, polyvinyl alcohol and water, characterizing it with physical chemical tests such as solubility, absorption capacity and density, as well as FTIR spectroscopy analysis. A totally stable and soluble in acid medium and partially in water was obtained biopolymer, so we can say that the elaborated biopolymer has friendly characteristics with the environment.