Carbon Dioxide in Ionic Liquid Microemulsions

摘要

A microemulsion is a thermodynamically stable dispersion of two immiscible fluids stabilized by surfactants. The hydro-philic head groups of the surfactants point to the polar phase, while the hydrophobic tails extend into an apolar phase. Owing to the capacity to host a variety of polar and nonpolar species simultaneously, microemulsions have been widely applied in protein delivery, drug release, catalysis, and nanomaterials synthesis. In general, the organic solvent (oil) and water are used as the two immiscible fluids in the formation of microemulsions.In recent years, especially with the development of green chemistry, supercritical CO2 (SC CO2) and ionic liquids (ILs), which are usually regarded as green solvents, have attracted much attention. In comparison with the conventional solvents (usually water and organic solvents), these green solvents have some unique properties.