Cellulose is a non-toxic and biocompatible polymer with potential applications ranging from composites and surface engineering to drug delivery and medicine. Cellulose can be extracted from natural sources using aggressive techniques or more recently shown by using ionic liquids (IL). However, while processing cellulose into fibers, textiles and films using harsh techniques and more recently, ILs, precise control of cellulose nanoparticle morphology has been difficult to demonstrate.  For years, microemulsions have been used to fabricate and template the shape and size of both inorganic and organic nanoparticles. Utilization of IL microemulsions can serve as templates to direct the formation and morphology of cellulose and cellulose derivative nanoparpaticles. However, the solubility mechanism of cellulose in ILs and high solution viscosity are two major challenges that make the formation of IL-cellulose microemulsions difficult.  Here we present preliminary work addressing those challenges, elucidating the dependence of surfactant type, as well as cellulose molecular weight on the stability of IL-cellulose microemulsions and the nanoparticles produced from them.<br/>

Ionic liquid-cellulose-in-oil microemulsions: Molecular weight dependence and directed morphology of cellulose nanoparticles

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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