Effect of controlled drying on the properties of cellulose ester films synthesized in Novel Ionic Liquid [mTBNH][OAc]

Cellulose, as a sustainable raw material, holds a promising future as a thermoplastic material. This work focused on fabricating cellulose ester thin films by using both controlled vacuum oven drying and conventional oven drying by the evaporation induced phase separation method (EIPS). A novel distillable ionic liquid (IL) 5-Methyl-1,5,7-triaza-bicyclo- [4.3.0]non-6-enium acetate [mTBNH][OAc]with high dissolving capability of cellulose along with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as a co-solvent are used. The drying methods were compared to investigate their influence on the Cellulose ester films morphological and wettability properties. Based on the results, with increasing the drying rate in the vacuum oven the films have a smoother surface (with CP having 2.14nm RMS value) than the other samples, also indicating higher contact angles of 124 for CP under vacuum drying conditions with denser films.