Title
Understanding the mechanism of cellulose dissolution in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid via quantum chemistry calculations and molecular dynamics simulations.
Abstract
While N,N'-dialkylimidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) have been well-established as effective solvents for dissolution and processing of cellulose, the detailed mechanism at the molecular level still remains unclear. In this work, we present a combined quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics simulation study on how the ILs dissolve cellulose. On the basis of calculations on 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, one of the most effective ILs dissolving cellulose, we further studied the molecular behavior of cellulose models (i.e. cellulose oligomers with degrees of polymerization n = 2, 4, and 6) in the IL, including the structural features and hydrogen bonding patterns. The collected data indicate that both chloride anions and imidazolium cations of the IL interact with the oligomer via hydrogen bonds. However, the anions occupy the first coordination shell of the oligomer, and the strength and number of hydrogen bonds and the interaction energy between anions and the oligomer are much larger than those between cations and the oligomer. It is observed that the intramolecular hydrogen bond in the oligomer is broken under the combined effect of anions and cations. The present results emphasize that the chloride anions play a critically important role and the imidazolium cations also present a remarkable contribution in the cellulose dissolution. This point of view is different from previous one that only underlines the importance of the chloride anions in the cellulose dissolution. The present results improve our understanding for the cellulose dissolution in imidazolium chloride ILs.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1007/s10822-012-9559-9
Journal of computer-aided molecular design
Keywords
Field
DocType
Cellulose,Ionic liquids,1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride,Quantum chemistry,Molecular dynamics
Chloride,Oligomer,Intramolecular force,Computational chemistry,Polymerization,Chemistry,Cellulose,Ionic liquid,Dissolution,Hydrogen bond
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
26
3
1573-4951
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
2
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Hao Xu100.34
Wenxiao Pan200.34
Ruoxi Wang363.14
Dongju Zhang400.68
Chengbu Liu551.92