Functional fluorescent material fabricated with cellulose derivative regenerated in a carbon disulfide based complex solvent

In this study, cellulose was facilely dissolved in a novel solvent composed of carbon disulfide, an organic base, and organic solvent, and then regenerated to obtain dithiocarbonate cellulose. Functional fluorescent material was then fabricated by grafting poly(lactic acid) side chain and dansyl chloride (DNS-Cl) to the backbone of this cellulose derivative. The product, denoted as cellulose- graft -poly(lactic acid)/dansyl chloride (C-g-PLLA/DNS-Cl), was obtained by simply dissolving cellulose and grafting fluorescent structures. It exhibits a distinct glass transition temperature, indicating thermal processing properties. It displays yellow-green fluorescence in both solid and solution states. The fluorescence intensity increases with solution concentration; when the concentration reaches 1.0 mg/mL, the intensity begins to decrease until complete quenching, exhibiting a pronounced aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect. Simultaneously, it exhibits high sensitivity fluorescent response towards Fe 3+ with a detection limit as low as 1.40 × 10 −5  M. This study provides a new perspective on the high-value utilization of cellulose based on a novel solvent.