Studies on the tosylation of cellulose in mixtures of ionic liquids and a co-solvent

The tosylation of cellulose in ionic liquids (ILs) was studied. Due to the beneficial effect of different co-solvents, the reaction could be performed at 25 °C without the need of heating (in order to reduce viscosity) or cooling (in order to prevent side reactions). The effects of reaction parameters, such as time, molar ratio, and type of base, on the degree of substitution (DS) with tosyl- and chloro-deoxy groups as well as on the molecular weight were evaluated. Products with a DStosyl ≤ 1.14 and DSCl ≤ 0.16 were obtained and characterized by means of NMR- and FT-IR spectroscopy in order to evaluate their purity and distribution of functional groups within the modified anhydroglucose unit (AGU). Tosylation of cellulose in mixtures of IL and a co-solvent was found to result in predominant substitution at the primary hydroxyl group. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) revealed only a moderate degradation of the polymer backbone at a reaction time of 4–8 h. Finally, the nucleophilic displacement (SN) of tosyl- and chloro-deoxy groups by azide as well as recycling of the ILs was studied.