Issue 9, 2008

Development of micro- and nano-porous composite materials by processing cellulose with ionic liquids and supercritical CO2

Abstract

Three lines of green chemistry were combined in this study, in order to produce porous materials with pore size distributions in the micro- and nano-scales. These lines are: (i) the renewable and biodegradable sources (cellulose), (ii) ionic liquids, and (iii) supercritical fluids. By dissolving cellulose in a room temperature ionic liquid and regenerating with water or methanol we obtained cellulose hydrogels and methanogels. The liquid mixtures were separated by vacuum distillation with high yield of recovery. The obtained gels were processed by supercritical carbon dioxide to give porous materials. A novel foaming procedure was applied to hydrogels in order to obtain microporous structures of cellulose and cellulose composites, while in alcogels the supercritical point drying method resulted in nanoporous aerogels. For elucidating physicochemical aspects involved in the two processes and for characterization of the produced materials, X-ray diffraction, sorption measurements (by a modified mass loss analysis and the BET method) and scanning electron microscopy were used. The role of various process parameters on the final porous structure was investigated.

Graphical abstract: Development of micro- and nano-porous composite materials by processing cellulose with ionic liquids and supercritical CO2

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Mar 2008
Accepted
17 Jun 2008
First published
07 Aug 2008

Green Chem., 2008,10, 965-971

Development of micro- and nano-porous composite materials by processing cellulose with ionic liquids and supercritical CO2

C. Tsioptsias, A. Stefopoulos, I. Kokkinomalis, L. Papadopoulou and C. Panayiotou, Green Chem., 2008, 10, 965 DOI: 10.1039/B803869D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements