“…1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium formate is highly selective towards the dissolution of hemicellulose [ 89 , 90 ]; - as pretreatment media for wood biomass to improve the accessibility of the cellulase enzymes in the bulk of the wood [ 91 ];
- as media for the cellulose component chemical modification, e.g., acetylation of wood in and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride/acetate mixture [ 92 ];
- as media for obtaining useful chemicals through depolymerization of wood lignin (5-hydroxymethylfurfural can be obtained after a long-run 24 h thermal treatment of wood 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) or wood cellulose (maltose, nigerose, kojibiose, laminaribiose, isomaltose, and gentiobiose can be obtained from cellulose through treatment with 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) [ 93 , 94 ];
- as carriers for different impregnants or antifungal agents into the structure of wood. In this application, ILs are useful through improving the penetration ability of the transported species through promoting wood swelling [ 25 , 33 ];
- as plasticizers for wood: ionic liquids with alkylammonium, alkylpyridinium or 1- n -alkyl-3-methylimidazolium (>C10) cations, do not dissolve the wood components, but can disrupt the inter- and intramolecular bonding in cellulose and/or lignin and increase the number of amorphous domains in opposition with the crystalline ones [ 30 , 95 ];
- as additives, providing various functionality: fire retarders (especially alkylphosphonium ILs, or ILs with hexafluorophosphate or tetrafluoroborate anions) [ 96 ], thermal and UV stabilizers [ 29 , 97 ], antistatic agents [ 98 ] and so forth.
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