Abstract
The utilization of cellulose in industrial applicat is of great significance to sustainable development of human society and reducing dependence on dwindling fossil resources. Nevertheless, this utilization of cellulose has actually been limited due to its insolubilization. Here, novel solvents consisting of diallylimidazolium methoxy acetate ([A2im][CH3OCH2COO]) and N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) were developed. The solubility of cellulose in [A2im][CH3OCH2COO]/NMP was determined, and the influence of [A2im][CH3OCH2COO]/NMP molar ratio on cellulose dissolution was systematically investigated. Meanwhile, we also presented the affecting factors of the cellulose material fabrication including preparation approach, [A2im][CH3OCH2COO] and cellulose solution concentration. Attractively, the [A2im][CH3OCH2COO]/NMP solvents display much powerful dissolution capacity for cellulose even at 25 °C (25.4 g 100 g−1). This is mainly ascribed to the combined factors: The hydrogen bond interactions of the H2, H4 and H6 in [A2im]+ and carboxyl O atom in [CH3OCH2COO]− with the hydroxyl H atom and O atom in cellulose; the dissociation of NMP towards [A2im][CH3OCH2COO]; the stabilization of NMP towards the dissolved cellulose chains. In addition, the thermostability and chemical structure of the regenerated cellulose from the solvents was also estimated.
Highlights
Cellulose is a highly abundant biopolymer resource in nature with fascinating properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, non-toxicity, and so on[1,2,3]
The [A2im][CH3OCH2COO]/NMP (RNMP = 0.41 – 2.43) solvents display much powerful dissolution capacity for cellulose with as high as 17.5–25.4 g 100 g−1 of cellulose solubilities, much higher than [C4mim][CH3COO]/DMSO, [C4mim][CH3COO]/DMF and [C4mim][CH3COO]/ DMA solvents[33,34,36]
It is found that the solubility of cellulose in neat [A2im] [CH3OCH2COO] is 16.2 g 100 g−1 at 25 °C, but cellulose cannot be dissolved in NMP at this temperature
Summary
Cellulose is a highly abundant biopolymer resource in nature with fascinating properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, non-toxicity, and so on[1,2,3] The utilization of this resource in industrial applications is of great significance to sustainable development of human society and reducing dependence on dwindling fossil resources. The dissolution and processing of cellulose in ILs were firstly initiated by Rogers and coworkers in 2002 They found that 10 wt% of cellulose solubility in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolim chloride could be obtained at 100 °C, and the cellulose solubility (25 wt%) was markedly improved via microwave heating[18]. The solvent systems display lower dissolution temperature, higher cellulose solubility and lower viscosity than neat ILs. This work aims to develop novel solvents which were expected to more efficiently dissolve cellulose than the solvents reported previously, and fabricate the cellulose material with varying morphologic structures using the solvents. The characterization of the regenerated cellulose from [A2im][CH3OCH2COO]/NMP solvent was completed to examine its chemical structure and thermostability
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