Cellulose pulps from wood (hydrolysis with sulfuric acid), bamboo and ramie were successfully dissolved in precooled NaOH/urea aqueous solution in 2 min regardless of the cellulose sources. From these cellulose solutions, the RC films were prepared, suggesting that wood, bamboo and ramie could be used as a source of raw materials for the preparation of the cellulose solution in the NaOH/urea aqueous system. These pulps were completely dissolved within 2 min, supported by the optical microscope observations, as well as the solution property characterization. The SEM, XRD and FT-IR results indicated that the cellulose from different sources exhibited similar crystallinity and morphology. The resultant RC films had the same bonded structure of a microporous structure with apore diameter of 100–300 nm. Furthermore, all the cellulose solutions exhibited a similar sol-gel transition with increasing temperature. All the
films showed good mechanical properties and transmittance because of the homogeneous structure and strong intermolecular interactions, among which the RC films prepared from bamboo pulp had the highest tensile strength and optical transmittance, indicating a
better dissolution in the NaOH/urea system. The results revealed the universality and strong capacity of the NaOH/urea solvent system for cellulose dissolution. Therefore, cellulose pulps from various sources can be dissolved in an NaOH/urea system after
necessary pretreatment, and cellulose materials can be further fabricated, demonstrating the universality of cellulose dissolution in an NaOH/urea system, which is capable of widening the range of cellulose applications and potential for further development.