“…Nevertheless, the lack of solubility of CMC in organic solvents, under both its sodium salt (NaCMC) and acid (HCMC) form, significantly limits its derivatization by grafting of hydrophobic molecules. Currently, only few strategies allow for the covalent grafting of hydrophobic moieties onto CMC, involving either the dispersion of the polysaccharide in organic solvent [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] or its previous modification (i.e., ion exchange to obtain the tetrabutylammonium (TBA) salt) [19,20,21] to form an organo-soluble derivative. Another possibility is represented by the condensation of CMC with an amine, at high temperature and in heterogeneous conditions, which results in the elimination of water and formation of an amide bond [22,23].…”