Ionic liquids are potential and successful cellulose solvent but still suffer technical and economic issues in the cellulose commercialization. In this work, a relative low-viscosity aqueous 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazole acetate (EmimAc with 10% water) was used instead of EmimAc to dissolve cellulose; the results showed that adding NaOH to water can significantly accelerate cellulose dissolution and the cellulose solubility increased with the NaOH concentration in the EmimAc/10% water solution. NaOH can weaken the strong interaction between water and EmimAc because it can bond preferentially with water by hydrogen bonding and therefore release Ac - from Ac - -water cluster; which can enhance the reaction between Emim + and Ac - and therefore improve the cellulose dissolution. Unfortunately, the NaOH introduction inevitably cause a cellulose degradation via peeling reaction.