Homogeneous esterification of cellulose in room temperature ionic liquids.

Homogeneous esterification of cellulose, which can control themolecular structure of the resultant cellulose esters and facilitate the versatility of cellulose-based materials, has drawn much attention. Recently, the advent of room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) capable of dissolving cellulose hasprovided anewandversatile platform for theefficient andhomogeneousesterification of cellulose. A variety of conventional, novel and functional cellulose esters have been successfully synthesized in ILs. Mean while, development of esterification techniques, utilization of agricultural residues and up-scaling of pilot schemes of esterification in ILs have been in progress. This review summarizes the advances and developments in homogeneous synthesis of cellulose esters in ILs in recent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]