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Updated: Oct 28, 2026

Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass with Low-cost Ionic Liquids
Published on: August 10, 2016
Ion dissociation enhances cellulose dissolution in zwitterions
Mitsuhiro Shimizu1, Takuya Uto2, Mayu Shibata1
1Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan. kkuroda@staff.kanazawa-u.ac.jp.
Abstract:
Zwitterions exhibit low toxicity but limited cellulose solubility. A newly designed zwitterion dissolved 18 wt% cellulose, the highest cellulose solubility reported for a zwitterion to date. Molecular dynamics simulations suggested that intra- and intermolecular ion dissociation enhanced anion availability for cellulose dissolution, highlighting ion association/dissociation as an overlooked design factor.
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