Dissolution of Cellulose in NaOH Based Solvents at Low Temperature

Three low-cost types of complex solvents systems were carried out to dissolve cellulose, which were NaOH/urea/acetamide, NaOH/urea/tetraethyl ammonium chloride, and NaOH/acetamide/tetraethyl ammonium chloride. As an effective dissolution, NaOH/acetamide/tetraethyl ammonium chloride behaved as the optimum system, and the solubility was 89 % under the conditions of: NaOH 8 wt%, acetamide 10 wt%, tetraethyl ammonium chloride 6 wt%, distilled water 76 wt%, and freezing temperature -5 degrees C. With the analysis of Ubbelohde viscometer, infrared spectra (FUR), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for the original and regenerated cellulose samples, it was indicated that the viscosity-average molecular weight had no significant changes in the dissolution process, the crystalline structure of cellulose was converted to cellulose II from cellulose Tin native cellulose, and the regenerated cellulose had a good thermal stability.