A novel method to prepare chemical fibers by plasticizing cotton with 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride.

In this study, we developed a novel method to prepare chemical fibers by plasticizing cotton with 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AMIMCl) under high temperature and pressure. Cotton was homogeneously mixed with AMIMCl by kneading in a certain mass proportion. It would be a sheet after hot-pressing and this process could be repeated several times. The morphologies of chemical fibers showed that cotton was successfully plasticized by AMIMCl with the crystallinity of the chemical fibers increased by about 15%. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that the glass transition temperature (Tg) occurred in chemical fibers and we could further verify cotton was plasticized by AMIMCl. This simple and green method will be helpful to modify and broaden the application field of cotton.