Abstract: In this study carboxymethyl cellulose was successfully synthesized from banana peel using sodium hydroxide as catalyst and chloroacetic acid as etherification agent. The effects of NaOH dosage, etherification time, etherification temperature, alkali time and ethanol dosage on the substitution degree of carboxymethyl cellulose were studied. Through PB screening, the influence factors of the dosage of NaOH, the dosage of chloroacetic acid and the temperature of etherification were determined. Based on single factor test, the process parameters of carboxymethyl cellulose were optimized by response surface method. The results showed that the optimum technological parameters for preparing carboxymethyl cellulose were:m (cellulose):m (NaOH)=1:1.5 (g·g^-1), m (cellulose):m (chloroacetic acid)=1:1.9 (g·g^-1), etherification temperature 80℃. The average value of substitution degree of carboxymethyl cellulose was 1.23. Carboxymethyl cellulose was obtained by infrared spectroscopy.