Turning the cold NaOH(aq) into a powerful processing system for cellulose by utilizing its abundance of CO2 - a step towards sustainable textile processes

Research Project, 2017 – 2021

Today, there is an urge to meet the increased textile consumption by wood- and recycled cellulose textiles, based on new sustainable dissolution concepts for cellulose. Still, there are only few solvents capable of dissolving the intricate cellulose structure while being environmentally friendly and industrially viable. One of them, experiencing a renewed interest is undoubtedly cold NaOH(aq). However, due to specific requirement on the hydration of NaOH along with the long range organization of cellulose chains, favorable interactions in this system are restricted to a very narrow window, implying need for either additives or modifications of cellulose structure in order to promote the dissolution. In the present proposal we intend to explore an inherent and so far unexploited asset of this system: its abundance of the dissolved CO2 from air and ability of dissolved cellulose to reversibily incorporate CO2 into organic structures. By elucidating the nature of these cellulose-CO2 interactions we hope to increse understanding for the fundamental interactions governing the behaviour of the cellulose/NaOH(aq) and shred light on the CO2-carbonation as a versatile intermediate step in cellulose processing.