Functionalized Imidazalium Carboxylates for Enhancing Practical Applicability in Cellulose Processing

Abstract

Developing cellulose-based products is highly important because of their low-cost, reproducibility, and biodegradability. However, extensive application for cellulose has been actually hindered due to its well-known insolubility. Herein, some 22 novel functionalized imidazalium carboxylates exhibit tremendously enhanced dissolution capacity for cellulose even without extra energy consumption and are much superior to the previously reported solvents so far. Systematic investigations reveal that the powerful dissolution capacity for cellulose mainly results from the contribution of the imidazolium skeleton cation, not replacing acidic H atoms in imidazolium skeleton by alkyl, binding more allyl in N atoms of imidazolium cation, and binding an electron-donating group in carboxylate anion. Of particular importance, porous cellulose materials with varying micromorphology, for the first time, are reported by tuning the anionic and/or cationic structures of an IL. Moreover, the regenerated cellulose material retains sufficient thermostability and chemical structure. Therefore, this investigation provides a viable strategy for practical application in cellulose conversion into valuable products even without extra heating.

Edible Films and Coatings Functionalization by Probiotic Incorporation: A Review

“…Extensive applications of mentioned materials has been literally obstructed by some difficulties in the material preparation process [73,74]. Most of these difficulties are related to the solubility of the materials in solvents that are accepted in food industry.…”

Oil–Water Separation using Membranes Manufactured from Cellulose/Ionic Liquid Solutions

“…26 More recently, ionic liquids have been introduced as a solvent for cellulose. Since then, the potential of using nature cellulosic polymers has increased [27][28][29][30][31][32] , and processes such as the biofuel production with the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass has become more efficient. [33][34][35] The use of ionic liquids for the dissolution of other polymers and the membrane manufacture is still in an early stage.…”

Dissolution performance of cellulose in [A2im][MOA]/MIM solvents

“…[8][9][10][11][12][13] Among the developed cellulose solvents, ILs have attracted more attention owing to their unique properties such as negligible vapor pressure, non-ammability, high chemical and thermal stability, and strong dissolution ability for various organic and inorganic materials. [14][15][16][17] The ILs used for efficient cellulose processing include 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium and 1allyl-3-methylimidazolium chlorides; 18, 19 1,3-dialkylimidazolium formates, acetates, propionates, butyrate, methoxyacetate, ethoxyacetate and acrylate; [20][21][22][23][24][25] imidazolium-based dialkylphosphates; 26 choline amino acids/carboxylates; 27,28 quaternary ammonium chlorides; 29 switchable, distillable and bio-based ILs. 30 By comparison, the 1,3-dialkylimidazolium carboxylate ILs display more efficient cellulose dissolution ability.…”