Sustainable, superfast deconstruction of natural cellulosic aggregates toward intrinsically green, multifunctional gel

Abstract

Natural cellulosic fibers/aggregates, being the most abundant eco-friendly resource, are a promising material solution toward the carbon neutrality and sustainability of our society. Further functionalization is required for their value-added applications but often involves complicated operations, high cost or toxic chemicals. Herein, we designed a simple and cost-effective strategy to enable super-fast yet completed deconstruction of cellulosic aggregates to cellulose molecules via microwave (MW)-assisted-ionic liquid (IL) engineering. MW radiation triggers the high-frequency swing of ions of IL, which leads to superfast heating behavior with a heating rate of ∼ 20 °C/s; meanwhile, the violent rotation of IL ions physically attacks cellulosic aggregates, accelerating their deconstruction. Our MW-IL strategy enables a superfast and complete deconstruction of cellulose (e.g., ∼240 s) compared with the conventional technology (>2400 s with non-complete deconstruction). The deconstructed cellulose can be facilely developed into the intrinsically green, multifunctional gel with high transparent, ion-conductive, injectable and reused advantages, which detects human motions accurately and continuously. The MW-IL-triggered deconstruction of cellulose opens a promising direction for the super-fast, cost-effectively preparation of high-quality cellulose materials, which are versatile toward advanced applications, including flexible electronics, micro/nano fluidics, and energy storage and conversion.