Extended dissolution studies of cellulose in ionic liquids

The potential of ionic liqs. (ILs) in dissoln. of cellulose (I) and their application in prepn. of I derivs. was studied. The side chains of the imidazolium-based ILs as well as anions were changed to contribute to a better knowledge of the structure/dissoln. relationships. In addn., good I dissolving ILs were tested as solvents for tritylation of I. The odd/even effect for the dissoln. of I in 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium based ILs bearing chloride as counter ion could not be found for bromide as anion. I was dissolved within 30 min under microwave irradn. without any change in color when using moderate microwave power and reaction temp. For the tritylation, differences in the degree of substitution were obtained, using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride instead of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. [on SciFinder (R)]