Dissolving cellulose with twin-screw extruder in a NaOH complex aqueous solution

Novel cellulose dissolution method with twin-screw extruder was developed in order to improve the dissolution property, to simplify production procedure and to produce cellulose spinning dope which is stable and which has a higher concentration of cellulose. Therefore, the extrusion conditions on the cellulose dissolution in NaOH/thiourea/urea were extensively studied in this work. The resulted extrudates of twin-screw extruder dissolution method were characterized by polarized optical microscope image, the solubility experiment and the apparent viscosity. The results revealed that the screw revolution speed of such process could improve the solubility value ( S _a) of cellulose, and the solubility of cellulose reached a maximum value of 7.5 wt% at higher revolutions 450 rpm. On the other hand, the cellulose solutions were more transparent and balanced with its apparent viscosity values lower and more stable compare to stirring method, which indicated dissolving cellulose with twin-screw extruder was reliable. Moreover, the whole dissolving time is quite short, and the process is simple. The soluble effect of twin screw extrusion was far superior to traditional stirring, and the most suitable temperature was -2°C. (paper)