Fabrication and characterization of electro-active cellulose films regenerated by using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid

This article reports dissolution, regeneration, and characterization of cellulose using an ionic liquid, namely 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCl). During dissolving process, BMIMCl takes much less time to dissolve cellulose with high degree of polymerization (DP = 4500) than other solvent system, lithium chloride/ N,N-dimethylacetamide (LiCl/DMAc). Regenerated cellulose film from BMIMCl–cellulose solution is characterized by viscosity, thermo gravimetric analyzer, X-ray diffraction, pull test, and transmittance test. Compared with LiCl/DMAc–cellulose, BMIMCl–cellulose solution has lower viscosity and its film has lower Young's modulus and yield strength. From thermo gravimetric analyzer and X-ray diffraction experiment, BMIMCl–cellulose film has impurity and X-ray diffraction pattern similar with those of LiCl/DMAc–cellulose film. BMIMCl–cellulose film exhibits higher transmittance. The ionic liquid recovery test verifies that BMIMCl is highly recoverable with 99%, which proves that BMIMCl is a green solvent. Through the bending displacement test, the BMIMCl–cellulose film shows a good actuation behavior of electro-active paper.