Four deep eutectic solvents (DESs), namely, glycerol/chlorocholine (glycerol/ChCl), urea/ChCl, citric acid/ChCl, and oxalic acid/ChCl, were synthesized and their performance in the dissolution of cellulose was studied. The results showed that the melting point of the DESs varied with the proportion of the hydrogen bond donor material. The viscosity of the DESs changed considerably with the change in temperature; as the temperature increased, the viscosity decreased and the electrical conductivity increased. Oxalic acid/ChCl exhibited the best dissolution effects on cellulose. The microscopic morphology of cellulose was observed with a microscope. The solvent system effectively dissolved the cellulose, and the dissolution method of the oxalic acid/ChCl solvent on cellulose was preliminarily analyzed. The ChCl solvent formed new hydrogen bonds with the hydroxyl groups of the cellulose through its oxygen atom in the hydroxyl group and its nitrogen atom in the amino group. That is to say, after the deep eutectic melt formed an internal hydrogen bond, a large number of remaining ions formed a hydrogen bond with the hydroxyl groups of the cellulose, resulting in a great dissolution of the cellulose. Although the cellulose and regenerated cellulose had similar structures, the crystal form of cellulose changed from type I to type II.

The separation of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin components using deep eutectic solvent, which is a green solvent, to obtain corresponding chemicals can realize the effective separation and high-value utilization of these components at low cost. In this study, we used waste biomass sugarcane bagasse as the raw material, choline chloride as the hydrogen bond acceptor, and lactic acid as the hydrogen bond donor to synthesize a deep eutectic solvent of choline chloride/lactic acid (L-DES) and treated sugarcane bagasse pretreated by alkali or hydrothermal methods to separate cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. In addition, we comparatively studied the effect of different pretreatment methods on lignin removal by DES and found that the lignin removal rate by L-DES after alkaline pretreatment was significantly higher than that after hydrothermal pretreatment, and the mechanism of action causing this difference is discussed.

Many achievements have been made on the research of composite polyurethane foams to improve their structure and mechanical properties, and the composite foams have been widely utilized in building insulation and furniture. In this work, rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) with the addition of different fillers (nano-SiO₂, peanut shell, pine bark) were prepared through the one-step method. The effects of inorganic nano-SiO₂ and organic biomass on foam properties were evaluated by means of physical and chemical characterization. The characterization results indicate that the compressive strength values of prepared foams could fully meet the specification requirement for the building insulation materials. The inorganic and organic fillers have no effect on the hydrogen bonding states in composite RPUFs. Furthermore, compared to the biomass fillers, the addition of nano-SiO₂ greatly influenced the final residual content of the fabricated foam. All composite foams exhibit closed-cell structure with smaller cell size in comparison with the parent foam. The prepared composite foams have the potential for utilization in building insulation.

Different modification process routes are used to improve the modified cellulose nanocrystalline (MCNC) with higher fatty acid by esterification reaction and graft polymerization to obtain certain hydrophobic properties. Two preparation methods, product structure and surface activity, are compared and explored. Experimental results show that the modified product is still at the nanometer level and basically retains the crystal structure of the raw cellulose nanocrystalline (CNC). The energy consumption of the two preparation methods is low; however, the esterification method with co-reactant requires short reaction time, and the degree of substitution of the product is high. The modified product prepared by grafting polymerization method has a high HLB value and amphiphilicity, which can effectively reduce the surface tension of water. Therefore, it can be used as a green and environmentally friendly surface-active substance.

In this study, nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) was grafted with lauric acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid and used as stabilizer to prepare styrene butyl acrylate emulsion. The properties of the emulsion were determined, and the mechanism of modified NCC (MNCC) stabilized emulsion was analyzed. Results showed that long-chain fatty acids were grafted to NCC through esterification initiated at a low temperature. When the dosage of L-MNCC, P-MNCC, and S-MNCC was 0.05%, the styrene-acrylic emulsion had 92.5%, 94.2%, and 96.3% conversion rates, respectively, and exhibited good dilution, pH, Ca²⁺, and centrifugal stability. The particle size of styrene-acrylic emulsion was approximately 460 nm, and the absolute value of the Zeta potential increased with the MNCC concentration. According to the images of optical microscopy and the transmission electron microscope, the MNCC was adsorbed onto the surface of styrene-acrylic emulsion droplets. The synergistic effect from the electrostatic repulsion of MNCC, the hydrophile lipophilicity of MNCC, and the spatial hindrance of the MNCC adsorption layer provided good stability for the styrene-acrylic emulsion. Therefore, MNCC could replace traditional surfactants in stabilizing emulsion.

In this paper, a two-phase system, formed by oxalic acid/choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) and chosen extractants, was used as a dissolution–reaction–separation system, and metal chloride was used as a catalyst to study the degradation of cellulose to produce 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and glucose. The effects of the amount of organic solvent and the reaction temperature on product yield, the repeated recycling of DES, the comparison between a two-phase system and a homogeneous system, and the mechanism of cellulose degradation to 5-HMF were investigated. The results show that ethyl n-butyrate has the best extraction effect on 5-HMF. Compared with the homogeneous system, the yield of 5-HMF and glucose in the two-phase system is significantly improved. At a temperature of 140 °C and a reaction time of 120 min, the yields of glucose and 5-HMF reached the maximum, which were 23.5% and 29.8%, respectively. After DES was reused three times, the yields of glucose and 5-HMF decreased greatly, indicating that the recycling rate of DES was low.