Sustainable, superfast deconstruction of natural cellulosic aggregates toward intrinsically green, multifunctional gel

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2022-05, Vol.435, p.134856, Article 134856
• Main Authors: Chen, Qunfeng, Liu, Yang, Tao, Tao, Sun, Haodong, Zeng, Kaizhu, Kanti Mondal, Ajoy, Bi, Shuai, Chen, Lihui, Ni, Yonghao, Yao, Yonggang, Li, Jianguo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ion-conductive gel; Microwave; Natural cellulose; Superfast deconstruction
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.134856

•MW-IL engineering enables ultrafast deconstruction of natural cellulosic aggregates.•Fragmented deconstruction model of cellulose is proposed in such engineering.•Water molecules trigger dynamic gel of deconstructed cellulose.•Developed cellulose gel is able to assess effectively human physical kinematics. Natural cellulosic fibers/aggregates, being the most abundant eco-friendly resource, are a promising material solution toward the carbon neutrality and sustainability of our society. Further functionalization is required for their value-added applications but often involves complicated operations, high cost or toxic chemicals. Herein, we designed a simple and cost-effective strategy to enable super-fast yet completed deconstruction of cellulosic aggregates to cellulose molecules via microwave (MW)-assisted-ionic liquid (IL) engineering. MW radiation triggers the high-frequency swing of ions of IL, which leads to superfast heating behavior with a heating rate of ∼ 20 °C/s; meanwhile, the violent rotation of IL ions physically attacks cellulosic aggregates, accelerating their deconstruction. Our MW-IL strategy enables a superfast and complete deconstruction of cellulose (e.g., ∼240 s) compared with the conventional technology (>2400 s with non-complete deconstruction). The deconstructed cellulose can be facilely developed into the intrinsically green, multifunctional gel with high transparent, ion-conductive, injectable and reused advantages, which detects human motions accurately and continuously. The MW-IL-triggered deconstruction of cellulose opens a promising direction for the super-fast, cost-effectively preparation of high-quality cellulose materials, which are versatile toward advanced applications, including flexible electronics, micro/nano fluidics, and energy storage and conversion.