Understanding cellulose dissolution: energetics of interactions of ionic liquids and cellobiose revealed by solution microcalorimetry

In this report, the interactions between fifteen selected ionic liquids (ILs) and cellobiose (CB) are examined by high-precision solution microcalorimetry. The heat of mixing (Δmix H) of CB and ILs, or CB and IL/molecular solvent (MS) solutions, provides the first ever-published measure of the affinity of CB with ILs. Most importantly, we found that there is a very good correlation between the nature of the results found for Δmix H(CB) and the solubility behavior of cellulose. This correlation suggests that Δmix H(CB) offers a good estimate of the enthalpy of dissolution of cellulose even in solvents in which cellulose is insoluble. Therefore, the current findings open up new horizons for unravelling the intricacies of the thermodynamic factors accounting for the spontaneity of cellulose dissolution in ILs or IL/MS solutions