Understanding Ionic Liquids as Novel Solvent in Green Chemistry

01.11.2007 - 31.07.2009
Research funding project
To prevent or reduce pollution at its source, an effective approach encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances have been established. Alternative solvent concepts in particular are of interest as the organic solvents used to date have come under some considerable criticism due to their health risks and threats to the environment. Based on their non-volatility and non-flammability as well as on recycling potential, ionic liquids have been recognized as solvents for ¿green chemistry¿. Several studies, however, indicate that the addition of water can strongly affect the physical and chemical properties of ILs, such as viscosity, electrical conductivity, reactivity and solvation properties. Despite the extensive work carried out on applications of ionic liquids there is still a lack of fundamental knowledge about their structure and physical-chemical properties. In this context, a deeper insight into the interactions between different solvents, such water and ILs is needed in order to better understand the properties of ILs based mixed solvents. Thus, a complete experimental and theoretical approach is proposed, aiming to obtain the electronic molecular structure of ILs and their interaction modes in the presence of water molecules. For these purposes, infrared and Raman spectroscopy will be employed for the study of different ionic liquid - water mixtures. Data analysis performed using multivariate curve resolution (MCR) will offer information regarding the presence of different monomer or/and dimer species upon increasing water concentration in ionic liquids or by modifying the temperature of the mixtures. Also Two Dimensional Correlation Spectroscopy (2DCoS) will be used as a method that is spreading the modulated spectra over a second spectral dimension, thus enhancing spectral resolution. Furthermore, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations will be employed for modelling the ionic liquid - water monomer/dimer structure as well as for vibrational spectra prediction. Thus, the calculated molecular structures will be validated by comparing the calculated vibrational bands with those obtained experimentally. In this way assessments about the interaction modes and electronic structures of the ionic liquid - water monomer/dimer clusters will be obtained. These informations are of great importance for understanding the ILs structure and its interaction modes at molecular level.

People

Project leader

Project personnel

Institute

Grant funds

  • European Commission (EU) Other EU Research Initiative European Commission Call identifier SEE-ERA-NET-Pilot Joint Call Application number INTAS Ref. Nr 06-1000031-10105

Research focus

  • Sustainable Production and Technologies: 50%
  • Materials Characterization: 50%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
Ionische FlüssigkeitenIonic Liquids
Green ChemsitryGrüne Chemie
Vibrational spectroscopySchwingungsspektroskopie
Density Functional TheoryDichtefunktionaltheorie

Publications