The development of biodegradable food packaging materials continues to be of significant interest because of its benefits. Among these materials, cellulose-based composites are candidates to replace conventional, petroleum-based food packaging materials. However, incomplete dissolution of cellulose has hindered its large-scale application. Since undissolved cellulose can affect the mechanical properties of the film, full dissolution is preferred. This work explores the use of plasma irradiation as a pretreatment step before the dissolution of cellulose in lithium chloride–N,N-dimethylacetamide (LiCl–DMAc) solvent. Prior to swelling, the cellulose was exposed to subatmospheric oxygen (O\(_2\)) plasma to initiate glycosidic bond cleavage without intense degradation of cellulose. Fourier transform infrared, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectral analyses revealed decrystallization and oxidation of the surface after plasma treatment which enhanced the dissolution of cellulose in LiCl–DMAc. Mechanical tests of drop-casted films revealed that plasma-treated cellulose greatly enhanced the mechanical strength of the film compared to that of untreated cellulose whose film was too weak for the tensile test. This work showed that exposure to O\(_2\) plasma as a pretreatment step can improve the dissolution of cellulose via decrystallization and thereby can be coupled with other natural materials as alternative to food packaging materials.

由于其有益效果，可生物降解食品包装材料的开发继续引起人们的极大兴趣。在这些材料中，纤维素基复合材料可替代传统的石油基食品包装材料。然而，纤维素的不完全溶解阻碍了其大规模应用。由于未溶解的纤维素会影响薄膜的机械性能，因此优选完全溶解。这项工作探索了在纤维素溶解在氯化锂-N，N-二甲基乙酰胺（LiCl-DMAc）溶剂中之前，使用等离子体辐射作为预处理步骤的方法。溶胀之前，将纤维素暴露于低于大气压的氧气（O \（_ 2 \））血浆引发糖苷键裂解而不会使纤维素强烈降解。傅立叶变换红外，拉曼光谱和X射线光电子能谱分析显示，等离子处理后表面发生了去结晶和氧化，从而增强了纤维素在LiCl–DMAc中的溶解。滴铸膜的机械测试表明，与未处理的纤维素相比，经等离子体处理的纤维素的膜的机械强度大大增强，而未经处理的纤维素的膜对于拉伸测试而言太弱。这项工作表明，作为预处理步骤暴露于O \（_ 2 \）等离子体可以改善纤维素通过去结晶的溶解度，从而可以与其他天然材料结合，代替食品包装材料。