Effects of Solvent Systems on Its Structure, Properties and Electromechanical Behavior of Cellulose Electro-Active Paper

This paper reports a comparative study on the influence of solvent systems on its structure, properties and electromechanical behavior of cellulose electro-active paper. Three types of solvent systems, namely N,N’-dimethylacetamide (DMAc)/LiCl, Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMICL) were studied to dissolve cellulose. Regenerated cellulose from DMAc/LiCl showed the best thermal and tensile properties whereas cellulose regenerated from BMICL exhibited high bending deformation with poor thermal and tensile properties, which might be due to the entrapped residual ionic liquid upon regeneration process. The cellulose regenerated with TFA showed the lowest thermal stability and tensile strength. Details of fabrication and characterization of regenerated cellulose films from three solvent systems are explained.