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 soft materials. 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 preparation of cellulose-based thermoplasticized materials through gelation with BMIMCl. When a solution of cotton cellulose in BMIMCl (5 wt%) was immersed in water at room temperature, the gelation smoothly progressed. The resulting ion gel was then dried at 60 <sup>o</sup>C for regeneration to obtain a cellulose film with BMIMCl, which showed flexible property. The DSC result of the film showed a new endothermic peak at around 150 <sup>o</sup>C, suggesting the occurrence of phase transition at the temperature. Accordingly, the film showed thermal processability above the temperature, indicating its thermoplastic property. On the other hand, When the 5 wt% cellulose/BMIMCl solutions were immersed in organic liquids with high and moderate polarities, such as DMSO and chloroform, the corresponding cellulosic solutions and organogels were produced, respectively. 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. With increasing the graft chain lengths, the resulting materials were soluble not only in moderate polar organic solvents, but also in lower polar organic solvents.

Conversion of cellulose into thermoplasticized and processable materials using ionic liquids

ACS Spring 2022

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