Co Solvent Optimization

Most importantly, given the hazards associated
with many of the widely used OES cosolvent components ,
we have identified an alternative, biobased solvent,
γ-valerolactone, as a suitable
cosolvent for formation of cellulose dissolving OESs
with [EMIm][OAc].

(While γ-butyrolactone also proved to be an excellent cosolvent,
significant concerns associated with its use in the preparation of
a dangerous drug of abuse, militate against its use.)

This offers significant improvements, with regards to safety profiles
and sourcing of solvents from renewable sources, for
large scaleprocessing of cellulose to form more sustainable materials.


■ ASSOCIATED CONTENT
*S Supporting Information
The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the
ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.
6b02020.
Original weight percent solubility data, annotated
Mathematica code for database sorting, fitting coefficients
and sorted tables of solvents from the Catalán and
Laurence databases (PDF)


■ AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: j.l.scott@bath.ac.uk.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) for Ph.D. studentship funding for
R.H.W. and M.A.J. via the EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre in
Sustainable Chemical Technologies, University of Bath (Grant
No. EP/G03768X/1), and the British Council for funding via the
Global Innovation Initiative program, which, in particular,
facilitated UK/Brazilian collaboration. R.L.S., C.S.P., and
M.S.S. thank the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
for financial support (Grants CEPID 2013/08293-7, 2014/
10448-1, and 2015/25031-1). RISM calculations were performed
at the Center for Computational Engineering and
Sciences (CCES) at University of Campinas, Brazil.
■ ABBREVIATIONS
IL: ionic liquid; [EMIm][OAc]: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
acetate; OES: organic electrolyte solution; RISM: referenceinteraction
site model; H-bond: hydrogen bond
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ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Research Article
DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b02020
ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2016, 4, 6200−6207
6206