Bicyclic guanidine superbase carboxylate salts for cellulose dissolution.

Bicyclic guanidines are utilized in organic synthesis as base catalysts or reagents. They also offer a platform for coordination chemistry, for example in CO activation, and their carboxylate salts offer an efficient media for cellulose dissolution. We have studied a series of bicyclic guanidines with varying ring sizes and with varying methyl substituents with a specific aim to find hydrolytically stable acetate salts for dissolution and processing of cellulose.