Cellulose ethers are commonly applied as rheological modifiers for water-based personal care products, cosmetics, and paints. Traditionally, a heterogeneous, alkaline slurry is used to synthesize a variety of water-soluble cellulose ethers from toxic, gaseous electrophiles. In lieu of these electrophiles, liquid-phase and potentially bio-derived electrophiles like glycidol and allyl glycidyl ether can be used as more sustainable options. In this work, a binary ionic liquid system was used for the homogeneous synthesis of water-soluble cellulose ethers at a high cellulose weight loading with similar or higher reaction efficiencies than other homogeneous processes. In a one-pot process, cellulose was first derivatized with glycidol to form a water-soluble ether, which was further modified with long chain glycidyl ethers to yield hydrophobe-modified cellulose ethers, an industrially important class of cellulose derivatives. Rheological studies of 3.0 wt% aqueous solutions of these cellulose ethers demonstrated a nearly four order-of-magnitude range over solution viscosity from 50 – 15,000 cP, depending on the extent of hydrophobe modification, allowing for potential application in a wide array of commercial products. This system demonstrates an efficient and versatile method for homogeneously synthesizing water-soluble, hydrophobe-modified cellulose ethers in a single step, paving the way for potential industrial applications of homogeneously-derived cellulose ethers.
