Cellulose finds use in a wide variety of applications and owing to its renewable abundant nature the use of cellulose in new applications is increasing. The ability of ionic liquids to dissolve cellulose was a catalyst for significant ionic liquid development and research in the early 2000’s to present day. Many applications and research papers exist on the topic of ionic liquids and cellulose from understanding dissolution mechanisms to developing functionalized forms of cellulose. In this talk, our efforts on processing cellulose and other lignocellulose types with ionic liquids will be discussed covering topics from spinning regenerated cellulose fibres to the development of cellulose aerogels with tunable pore structures, including recycling textiles materials using ionic liquid solvents. The influence of dissolution and regeneration is a common theme for each of these processes and impacts the properties of the final material. Application properties will also discussed.

Figure 1:

Aerogels produced using different ionic liquids resulting in different pore morphology and mechanical properties.

Figure 2:

Regenerated lignocellulose fibres produced under different draw and different solvents: below carbon fibre from regenerated lignocellulose precursor