Cellulose porosity improves its dissolution by facilitating solvent diffusion

This paper reports on the effect of improved porous characteristics of cellulose on its solubility inDMAc/LiCl. The<br>use of freeze-drying (FD) treatment led to higher surface area and void fraction of volume for high-molecularweight<br>(HMW) cotton cellulose (DP~5000). Improvement in porous characteristics of cellulose did not change<br>the chemical and crystalline structures of cellulose, as compared to hot-drying (HD) treatment. However, significant<br>improvement in the dissolution of FD-HMWcellulose in DMAc/LiCl was observed under relatively lowtemperature<br>(80 °C). The relationship between the solubility and the porous characteristics of cellulose was discussed<br>using Stokes-Einstein Equation and effective diffusion coefficient equation. It was concluded that the increase in<br>the diffusion coefficient of the solvent and the improvement in the porous characteristics of cellulose played key<br>roles to enhance the diffusion rate of the solvent through the cellulose molecula