Dimethyl sulfoxide assisted dissolution of cellulose in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoium acetate: small angle neutron scattering and rheological studies

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has been successfully used as a co-solvent in cellulose and biomass processing by ionic liquids (ILs). However, the interactions between cellulose, DMSO and ILs are still not fully understood and conflicting results exist in literature. In this work, solution structures of mixture solvents of DMSO-d6 and 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium acetate ([C2C1Im][OAc]) were studied by small angle neutron scattering (SANS) where the concentration of [C2C1Im][OAc] in DMSO-d6 varied from 80 to 1wt%. In addition, the solution structure of cellulose in 10wt% ([C2C1Im][OAc])+90wt% DMSO mixture solvent were evaluated by rheology and SANS. The results were discussed considering the rigidity of cellulose chains and compared them with the marginal solution behavior of semi-flexible polymers. [GRAPHICS] .