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Mechanical decrystallization and water-promoted recrystallization of cellulose were studied to understand the effects of cellulose crystallinity on reaction engineering models of its acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. Microcrystalline cellulose was ball-milled for different periods of time, which decreased its crystallinity and increased the glucose yield obtained from acid hydrolysis treatment. Crystallinity increased after acid hydrolysis treatment, which has previously been explained in terms of rapid hydrolysis of amorphous cellulose, despite conflicting evidence of solvent promoted recrystallization. To elucidate the mechanism, decrystallized samples were subjected to various non-hydrolyzing treatments involving water exposure. Interestingly, all non-hydrolyzing hydrothermal treatments resulted in recovery of crystallinity, including a treatment consisting of heat-up and quenching that was selected as a way to estimate the crystallinity at the onset of hydrolysis. Therefore, the proposed mechanism involving rapid hydrolysis of amorphous cellulose must be incomplete, since the recrystallization rate of amorphous cellulose is greater than the hydrolysis rate. Several techniques (solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy) were used to establish that water contact promotes conversion of amorphous cellulose to a mixture of crystalline cellulose I and cellulose II. Crystallite size may also be reduced by the decrystallization-recrystallization treatment. Ethanolysis was used to confirm that the reactivity of the cellulose I/cellulose II mixture is distinct from that of truly amorphous cellulose. These results strongly point to a revised, more realistic model of hydrolysis of mechanically decrystallized cellulose, involving recrystallization and hydrolysis of the cellulose I/cellulose II mixture. 

Isomerization behaviors of spiropyran derivatives in neat condensed phase were studied to understand their unusual phase transitions including cold-crystallization after extreme supercooling down to −50 °C. Compounds with different functional groups were compared, and the equilibrium between isomers at high temperatures was found to determine phase transitions. 

The composition of fluorescent polymer nanoparticles, commonly referred to as carbon dots, synthesized by microwave‐assisted reaction of citric acid and ethylenediamine was investigated by¹³C,¹³C{¹H},¹H─¹³C,¹³C{¹⁴N}, and¹⁵N solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments.¹³C NMR with spectral editing provided no evidence for significant condensed aromatic or diamondoid carbon phases.¹⁵N NMR showed that the nanoparticle matrix has been polymerized by amide and some imide formation. Five small, resolved¹³C NMR peaks, including an unusual ═CH signal at 84 ppm (¹H chemical shift of 5.8 ppm) and ═CN₂at 155 ppm, and two distinctive¹⁵N NMR resonances near 80 and 160 ppm proved the presence of 5‐oxo‐1,2,3,5‐tetrahydroimidazo[1,2‐a]pyridine‐7‐carboxylic acid (IPCA) or its derivatives. This molecular fluorophore with conjugated double bonds, formed by a double cyclization reaction of citric acid and ethylenediamine as first shown by Y. Song, B. Yang, and coworkers in 2015, accounts for the fluorescence of the carbon dots. Cross‐peaks in a¹H─¹³C HETCOR spectrum with brief¹H spin diffusion proved that IPCA is finely dispersed in the polyamide matrix. From quantitative¹³C and¹⁵N NMR spectra, a high concentration (18 ± 2 wt%) of IPCA in the carbon dots was determined. A pronounced gradient in¹³C chemical‐shift perturbations and peak widths, with the broadest lines near the COO group of IPCA, indicated at least partial transformation of the carboxylic acid of IPCA by amide or ester formation.