Solvent properties of lipidic ionic liquids.

摘要

The discovery of the impact that invisible but harmful gas emissions have on our environment was one of the greatest scientific accomplishments of the 20th century. Among the greatest challenges of the 21st century is to prevent these gases from being released by industrial processes. Chemical processes that utilize volatile organic solvents often release harmful emissions into the environment. One solution to this problem is to replace these solvents with ionic liquids, room temperature liquid salts that have vanishingly low vapor pressures, which greatly reduces the possibility of fugitive emissions. Conventional ionic liquids are polar and will only dissolve polar solutes. A novel ionic liquid named lipidic ionic liquids show potential as alternative solvents for nonpolar compounds. This work studies the phase behavior of binary mixtures of lipidic ionic liquids and model molecular compounds ranging from polar to nonpolar. Results indicate that these lipidic ionic liquids are better solvents for nonpolar compounds than conventional ionic liquids. Employing these environmentally benign solvents could reduce harmful gaseous emissions from chemical processes that lead to air pollution and contribute to climate change.