Spinning of wheat straw-based pulp into cellulosic multifilaments by 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium octanoate as direct solvent

Abstract

The demand for man-made cellulosic fibers is rapidly increasing; however, these fibers are mainly based on wood dissolving pulp. Faster growing crops, such as agricultural residues and annual fast-growing plants (i.e. hemp), are attractive alternative raw materials as well.e report on the use of wheat straw pulp (WS) for the spinning of continuous man-made cellulosic fibers based on an ionic liquid spinning technology. Filaments were produced from bleached and unbleached WS pulp that were obtained by an acetone based organosolv fractionation Commercial dissolving pulp based on hardwood (HW) was used as reference pulp Continuous filaments were spun using a novel dry-jet wet spinning (HighPerCell® process) technique, which is based on the use of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium octanoate ( [C₂C₁im] [Oc]) as a solvent. Via this approach, continuous multifilament filaments were spun in textile and technical quality filament yarns. Elongation at break up to 9 % and tenacities of 35 cN/tex were obtained for the WS filaments. The novel approach also allows the preparation of low wet fibrillating cellulosic filaments appropriate for textile applications. It should be emphasized that only recycled IL was used in the production of the filaments and sustainable pulping technology.