Data for Effect of Water on the Dissolution of Flax Fibers in the Ionic Liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate

This work has investigated the dissolution rate of flax fibers in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [C2mim] [OAc] with the addition of an anti-solvent, water. Optical microscopy has been used to analyses the resultant partially dissolved fibers. Distilled water was added to the solvent bath at the concentration of 1%, 2% and 4% by weight of the [C2mim] [OAc]. The effect of the addition of even small amounts of water was found to significantly decrease the speed of dissolution, decreasing exponentially as a function of water concentration. The resulting data of both pure (as received from the manufacturers) IL and IL/water mixtures showed the growth of the coagulated fraction as a function of both dissolution time and temperature followed time temperature superposition (TTS), and from this the dissolution was found to follow an Arrhenius behavior with an activation energy of 64 ± 5 kJ/mol for the IL as received (0.2%water). For 1%, 2% and 4% water systems, the activation energies were found to be 74 ± 7 kJ/mol, 97 ± 3 kJ/mol and 116 ± 0.6 kJ/mol respectively. Extrapolating these results to zero water concentration gave a value for the hypothetical dry IL (no water) of 58 ± 4 kJ/mol.