Propylene Carbonate Based‐Organic Electrolytes for Cellulose Dissolution Processing and Derivatization

Abstract

The design of green and facile dissolution technologies to allow homogeneous processing and derivatization of cellulose towards a controllable facile preparation of cellulosic materials is prime important. Herein, in combination with [Emim]OAc ionic liquids, propylene carbonate (PC) is reported to dissolve up to 10wt% of cellulose at 80 oC in 20 mins when XILs in the designed “organic electrolyte solutions (OESs)” is larger than 0.3. Rheological study of the obtained cellulose solution was performed and then the polarity of the PC, [Emim]OAc and the OESs was assessed from the solvatochromic behaviour of Reichardt's dye. The results show that the addition of [Emim]OAc ionic liquids into PC can considerably increase the polarity of PC, as evidenced by the fact that ET(30) values increases from 47.501 to 50.132 when XILs is 0.4. Finally, the potential of the obtained cellulose solution in OESs for cellulose homogeneous processing into films and derivatization was primary demonstrated by the successful preparation of transparent cellulosic films and effective transesterification of cellulose with vinyl pivalate and benzoate. In a word, the study provides a new green solvent system and insights the future design of new solvents for cellulose homogeneous processing and derivatization.

Cellulose in Ionic Liquids and Alkaline Solutions: Advances in the Mechanisms of Biopolymer Dissolution and Regeneration

“…(30), SA, SB, SD/SP of the IL are larger than those of PC, the largest increase observed on dissolving the IL in PC was that of SB. These solvatochromic results show the importance of solvent basicity for cellulose dissolution [68].…”

Use of an [EMIM][OAc]/GVL-based organic electrolyte solvent to engineer chitosan into a nanocomposite organic ionogel electrolyte for flexible supercapacitors

“…23 Gratefully, a mixture of traditional organic molecular solvents (e.g., DMSO, N,N-dimethylformamide, and propylene carbonate) and ILs has been used to construct a new class of solvents, IL-based organic electrolyte solutions (OESs), which have been used as solvents for biomass dissolution and processing with superior performance compared to neat ILs. 24,25 The addition of traditional organic molecular solvents into ILs not only reduces the cost of the solvent systems, solvent viscosity and melting point, but also enhances the ionic conductivity, which is consequently beneficial for the electrochemical performance over a wide working temperature range if an OES could be incorporated into a GPE as an organic ion electrolyte. [26][27][28][29] Regretfully, the design and development of GPEs capable of hosting OESs as electrolytes to assemble flexible supercapacitors have rarely been reported so far.…”