Dissolution of Wood in Ionic Liquids

The present paper demonstrates that both hardwoods and softwoods are readily soluble in various imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) under gentle conditions. More specifically, a variety of ionic liquids can only partially dissolve wood chips, whereas ionic liquids such as 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride have good solvating power for Norway spruce sawdust and Norway spruce and Southern pine thermomechanical pulp (TMP) fibers. Despite the fact that the obtained solutions were not fully clear, these ionic liquids provided solutions which permitted the complete acetylation of the wood. Alternatively, transparent amber solutions of wood could be obtained when the…