Ionic Liquids as Organocatalysts and Solvents for Lignocellulose Reactions

Ionic liquids (ILs) are the only media that can allow the homogeneous organocatalytic reactions of lignocellulosic biomass (lignocellulose), since the designability of their cations and anions offers the dual functions of solubility and catalytic activity. This review provides an account of our recent achievements in the organocatalytic approaches for converting lignocellulose into polymer materials based on the principles of IL design that we have originally established. These methodologies include the simple and mild chemical modification of cellulose and lignin under high conversions, with high selectivity, and/or with efficient atom economy. Similar reactions and subsequent fractionation processes are applied to lignocellulose, and a highly productive reaction system is developed using a twin-screw extruder that is specific to the IL media.