German scientists have developed a model to predict the solubility of cellulose in different ionic liquids.
In the past, ionic liquids have been shown to be promising solvents for cellulose but have you ever wondered which ones to use because the ionic liquid candidates are numerous? Kai Leonhard and co-workers, at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, used a computing model called COSMO-RS to screen over 2000 ionic liquids with respect to their dissolving power for cellulose. The results are in good agreement with experimental data available in literature.
Leonhard and his team found that “anions were mainly responsible for the respective dissolving power, suggesting some new ionic liquids as potential candidates for cellulose dissolution”.
Read more about this article here:
Modelling cellulose solubilities in ionic liquids using COSMO-RS
Jens Kahlen, Kai Masuch and Kai Leonhard, Green Chem., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00200C, Paper
