Cellulose is the most abundant organic resource on the earth and currently used in various practical applications as fibrous materials. Due to its highly crystalline structure, however, cellulose shows poor solubility and processability, leading to difficulty in applications as a wide variety of polymeric materials. Derivatization and graft modification of hydroxy groups on cellulose are versatile approaches to obtain cellulose-based functional polymeric materials, such as thermoplastics and processable materials. On the other hand, ionic liquids are identified as good solvents for cellulose since an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCl), has been found to dissolve cellulose. This presentation reports the facile  preparation of the cellulose organic solutions and organogels by immersing cellulose/BMIMCl solutions in organic liquids with suitable polarities. When 5 wt% cellulose/BMIMCl solutions were immersed in organic liquids with high and moderate polarities, such as DMSO and chloroform, the corresponding cellulose solutions and gels were produced, respectively. On the other hand, immersing the cellulose/BMIMCl solutions in lower polar liquids resulted in aggregation of cellulose in the mixtures. Polarities of the liquids strongly influenced contents of organic media and BMIMCl in the gels, which also affected mechanical properties under compression mode. The resulting cellulose/BMIMCl/DMSO solution was used as media for graft polymerization of 1,2-butylene oxide (BO) on cellulose to produce polyether-grafted cellulose. After reaction of hydroxy groups with sodium hydride in the solution, anionic ring-opening polymerization of BO from the obtained alkoxides was carried out at desired temperatures. The NMR analysis of the isolated products suggested the occurrence of graft polymerization on cellulose to produce the desired polyBO-grafted celluloses. The detailed results on this work will be given in the presentation.

Facile  preparation of cellulose solutions and organogels and their use as media for grafting reaction on cellulose

ACS Fall 2021

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