Abstract: Pine wood chips were successfully acetylated in an ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride(AmimCl). Without any catalyst, acetylated pine with the weight percentage gain(WPG) in the range of -89% to 156% could be prepared in one\|step. Under the homogeneous state, the WPG of acetylated pine can be easily controlled by the acetylation time, temperature and molar ratio of Ac2O/OH. The obtained acetylated pine was characterized by means of FTIR, 13C NMR, TGA and SEM. The NMR and FTIR results show obvious peaks for the acetylation; the TGA result shows that the thermal stability of acetylated wood can reach as high as 205 ℃, which is a bit lower than the original pine; the SEM result shows that the acetylated pine has a dense and homogeneous structure. Therefore, this study presents a promising approach and green process for in-situ wood chip acetylation efficiently.

Key words: Pine wood chip, Ionic liquid, Homogeneous acetylation