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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass with Low-cost Ionic Liquids
Published on: August 10, 2016
Facile Cellulose Dissolution and Characterization in the Newly Synthesized 1,3-Diallyl-2-ethylimidazolium Acetate
Hui Zhang1, Yaoguang Xu2, Yuqi Li3
1College of Materials Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, Fujian, China. huizhang@fafu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
A facile cellulose solvent 1,3-diallyl-2-ethylimidazolium acetate ([AAeim][OAc]) with high electrical conductivity has been designed and synthesized for the first time, via a quaternization reaction and ion exchange method. The dissolution characteristics of cellulose in this solvent were studied in detail. Meanwhile, the co-solvent system was designed by adding an aprotic polar solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in [AAeim][OAc]. The effects of temperature and the mass ratio of DMSO to [AAeim][OAc] on the solubility of cellulose were studied. Furthermore, the effects of regeneration on the molecular structure and thermal stability of cellulose were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermal gravity analysis (TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The findings revealed that the synthesized ionic liquid (IL) has a relatively low viscosity, high conductivity and a good dissolving capacity for bamboo dissolving pulp cellulose (Degree of Polymerization: DP = 650). The macromolecular chain of the cellulose is less damaged during the dissolution and regeneration process. Due to the increased number of "free" anions [OAc]- and cations [AAeim]⁺, the addition of DMSO can significantly increase the solubility of the cellulose up to 12 wt % at the mass ratio of 3:1, indicating that the synthesized IL has a potential application in the electrospinning field.
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