Cellulose can easily be dissolved without degradation by using ethylene diamine

Cellulose does not dissolve in commonly used solvents. Although some amide-type solvents containing lithium chloride dissolve cellulose well, the speed of dissolution is quite slow. This slows the research on the molecule characteristics of cellulose and also on potential applications using cellulose solution. We were able to accelerate the speed of dissolution and measured the solution properties of cellulose properly by pre-swelling with ethylenediamine and substitution by methanol. The crystalline structure of the cellulose has been transferred to cellulose III. Freeze-drying processing was also effective. The dilute solution and viscoelastic properties obtained through this technique corresponded to those of cellulose solutions obtained by published methods. Thus, the dissolution acceleration technique did not reduce the molecular weight of cellulose.