Synthesis of a cellulose dissolving liquid zwitterion from general and low-cost reagents

A carboxylate-type liquid zwitterion, OE2imC3C, has been recently reported as a unique solvent as a class of ionic liquids with distinctive properties and functions such as cellulose dissolution ability and low toxicity to fermentative microoganisms. Therefore, OE2imC3C first enabled successive conversion of biomass to bioethanol in the same reaction pot. However, the reagent, 1-bromo-2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethane, used for OE2imC3C synthesis is expensive and sometimes out of production and thus prevents its industrialization. Here we synthesized OE2imC3C from general and low-cost reagents. We also confirmed that the present OE2imC3C maintained the distinctive properties and functions because previous literature indicates synthetic procedures affect the properties. The low toxicity and cellulose dissolution ability of the OE2imC3C synthesized in this study were equivalent to those of conventional OE2imC3C. In addition, OE2imC3C is known to have ability to cryopreserve mammalian cells and the OE2imC3C synthesized in this study exhibited the ability.