Green solvents from ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents to natural deep eutectic solvents

Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) are defined as mixtures of certain molar ratios of natural compounds such as sugars, organic acids, amino acids, and organic bases that are abundant in organisms. The melting points of these mixtures are considerably lower than those of their individual ingredients and far below ambient temperature. The first publications on the NADES concept in 2011 created a great expectation regarding their potential as green solvents that could replace conventional organic solvents in a wide range of applications. This was largely because many of the drawbacks of conventional synthetic ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs), particularly their toxicity and environmental hazards, could be solved using NADESs. Throughout the last 7 years, the interest in NADESs has increased enormously as reflected by the exponential growth of the number of related publications. The research on NADESs has rapidly expanded particularly into the evaluation of the feasibility of their application in diverse fields such as the extraction of (targeted) bioactive compounds from natural sources, as media for enzymatic or chemical reactions, preservatives of labile compounds, or as vehicles of non–water-soluble compounds for pharmaceutical purposes. Along with the exploration of these potential applications, there have been a large number of other studies related to their physicochemical features, the search for new NADESs, the research into the interactions between NADES components or with solutes, the recovery of solutes from NADES solutions, and the ways of circumventing inherent problems of NADESs such as their high viscosity and the consequent difficulties in handling them. This article contains a review of the applications of NADESs as extraction solvents, reaction media, and preservative, providing also a perspective of their future.     

Hydrolase-catalyzed biotransformations in deep eutectic solvents

Hydrolases show good catalytic activity in deep eutectic solvents, despite the presence of urea, which can denature enzymes, or alcohols, which can interfere with hydrolase-catalyzed reactions.     

Thermal conductivity of deep eutectic solvents

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - We have reported the thermal conductivities of three deep eutectic solvents (DESs). We have used choline chloride, N,N-diethyl ethanol ammonium...     

Responsive switchable deep eutectic solvents: A review

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have drawn considerable attention as a new type of green solvent since they were reported. Subsequent studies have shown that DESs have the potential to be used as “designable” solvents, which means that the precursors of DESs with different structures and properties can be screened to customize DESs for specific functions. Researchers have found that during the sample preparation process involving DESs, the specific properties of some “smart” DESs can be switched by directing external driving forces, leading to a reversible phase transition of the target solution. These "smart" DESs are called switchable deep eutectic solvents (SDESs). The advent of SDES simplifies the sample pretreatment steps, reduces the use of organic solvents, and makes solvents easy to recycle, which matches the concept of green and sustainable chemistry. Compared with the number of previous experimental studies, the reviews and summaries on SDESs are rare. Therefore, this review made a summary of the concept and research progress of SDESs based on some related works in the past decade, including composition and type, characterization, switching mechanism, etc. It is expected to provide a certain reference and guidance for the subsequent in-depth research of SDESs in the analytical sample pretreatment.     

低共熔溶剂的应用研究现状

低共熔溶剂是两种或多种固体或液体物质通过氢键相互作用形成的液体溶剂,其熔点明显低于单一组分的熔点。与传统离子液体相比,低共熔溶剂成本更低,制备更容易,可生物降解,具有100%原子利用率和生物相容性及无毒无害等绿色特性,这些优点使其在许多研究领域被广泛研究。本文介绍了低共熔溶剂的最新分类,综述了低共熔溶剂在电化学、气体吸收、有机合成、功能材料合成、萃取分离、药物增溶及生物质预处理中的应用,并对低共熔溶剂的未来发展进行了展望。     

Sustainable biorefinery processes using renewable deep eutectic solvents

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Double layer effects on metal nucleation in deep eutectic solvents

The electrodeposition of zinc has been studied in two deep eutectic solvents. Unlike the metals studied to date in these liquids, zinc electrodeposition is not mass transport limited and the morphology of the deposit differs in the two liquids. This study shows that changing the concentration of solute affects the physical properties of the liquid to different extents although this is found to not effect the morphology of the metal deposited. EXAFS was used to show that the speciation of zinc was the same in both liquids. Double layer capacitance studies showed differences between the two liquids and these are proposed to be due to the adsorption of a species on the electrode which is thought to be chloride. The differences in zinc morphology is attributed to blocking of certain crystal faces leading to deposition of small platelet shaped crystals in the glycol based liquid.     

Development of deep eutectic solvents applied in extraction and separation

Deep eutectic solvents, as an alternative to ionic liquids, have greener credentials than ionic liquids, and have attracted considerable attention in related chemical research. Deep eutectic solvents have attracted increasing attention in chemistry for the extraction and separation of various target compounds from natural products. This review highlights the preparation of deep eutectic solvents, unique properties of deep eutectic solvents, and synthesis of deep‐eutectic‐solvent‐based materials. On the other hand, application in the extraction and separation of deep eutectic solvents is also included in this report. In this paper, the available data and references in this field are reviewed to summarize the applications and developments of deep eutectic solvents. Based on the development of deep eutectic solvents, an exploitation of new deep eutectic solvents and deep eutectic solvents‐based materials is expected to diversify into extraction and separation.     

Type V deep eutectic solvents: Design and applications

Type V deep eutectic solvents are a novel class of sustainable solvents. They are prepared by physically mixing solid, non-ionic components and are characterized by strong negative deviations from thermodynamic ideality. This work provides guidelines for the rational design of these solvents and reviews some of their recent applications. Emphasis is given on the choice of hydrogen bond donors and acceptors to achieve the necessary liquid phase non-ideality, namely on the use of pairs of molecules with high polarity asymmetry, and stresses the importance of assessing their solid–liquid phase diagrams. Polymorphism and cocrystal formation are also briefly addressed, together with predictive methodologies that have been developed to estimate their properties.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel ternary deep eutectic solvents简

A series of room-temperature ternary deep eutectic solvents(TDESs) were prepared from imidazolium halides, zinc halides and amides. The [BMIM]Cl–ZnCl2 –acetamide(1:1:1) system shows the lowest freezing point( 60 8C) and lowest density in the series. The viscosity and conductivity of TDESs have an exponential relationship with temperature and can be fitted by Arrhenius equation.     

The electrodeposition of silver composites using deep eutectic solvents

Silver is an important metal for electronic connectors, however, it is extremely soft and wear can be a significant issue. This paper describes how improved wear resistant silver coatings can be obtained from the electrolytic deposition of silver from a solution of AgCl in an ethylene glycol/choline chloride based Deep Eutectic Solvent. An up to 10-fold decrease in the wear volume is observed by the incorporation of SiC or Al(2)O(3) particles. The work also addresses the fundamental aspect of speciation of silver chloride in solution using EXAFS to probe solution structure. The size but not the nature of the composite particles is seen to change the morphology and grain size of the silver deposit. Grain sizes are shown to be consistent with previous nucleation studies. The addition of LiF is found to significantly affect the deposit morphology and improve wear resistance.     

Development and applications of deep eutectic solvents in different chromatographic techniques

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) being inexpensive, easy to prepare, biocompatible, biodegradable and environmentally benign have...     

The electrochemical stability of ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents

Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) composed of cations and anions, as well as deep eutectic solvents (DESs) composed of hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) and hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs), are regarded as green solvents due to their low volatility. They have been used widely for electrochemically driven reactions because they exhibit high conductivity and excellent electrochemical stability. However, no systematic investigations on the electrochemical potential windows (EPWs), which could be used to characterize the electrochemical stability, have been reported. In this regard, the EPWs of 33 ILs and 23 DESs have been studied utilizing cyclic voltammetry (CV) method and the effects of structural factors (cations and anions of ILs, and HBDs and HBAs of DESs) and external factors (electrode, water content) on the EPWs have been comprehensively investigated. The electrochemical stability of selected ILs comprising five traditional cations, namely imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, piperidinium and ammonium and 13 kinds of versatile anions was studied. The results show that for ILs, both cation and anion play an important role on the reductive and oxidative potential limit. For a same IL at different working electrode, for example, glassy carbon (GC), gold (Au) and platinum (Pt) electrode, the largest potential window is almost observed on the GC working electrode. The investigations on the EPWs of choline chloride (ChCl), choline bromide (ChBr), choline iodide (ChI), and methyl urea based DESs show that the DES composed of ChCl and methyl urea has the largest potential window. This work may aid the selection of ILs or DESs for use as a direct electrolyte or a solvent in electrochemical applications.     

Natural deep eutectic solvents as new potential media for green technology

Developing new green solvents is one of the key subjects in Green Chemistry. Ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents, thus, have been paid great attention to replace current harsh organic solvents and have been applied to many chemical processing such as extraction and synthesis. However, current ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents have still limitations to be applied to a real chemical industry due to toxicity against human and environment and high cost of ILs and solid state of most deep eutectic solvents at room temperature. Recently we discovered that many plant abundant primary metabolites changed their state from solid to liquid when they were mixed in proper ratio. This finding made us hypothesize that natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) play a role as alternative media to water in living organisms and tested a wide range of natural products, which resulted in discovery of over 100 NADES from nature. In order to prove deep eutectic feature the interaction between the molecules was investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. All the tested NADES show clear hydrogen bonding between components. As next step physical properties of NADES such as water activity, density, viscosity, polarity and thermal properties were measured as well as the effect of water on the physical properties. In the last stage the novel NADES were applied to the solubilization of wide range of biomolecules such as non-water soluble bioactive natural products, gluten, starch, and DNA. In most cases the solubility of the biomolecules evaluated in this study was greatly higher than water. Based on the results the novel NADES may be expected as potential green solvents at room temperature in diverse fields of chemistry.     

基于低共熔溶剂的萃取分离技术及其应用研究进展

随着绿色化学的发展,开发和应用符合绿色化学要求的溶剂和方法备受关注。作为离子液体类似物,低共熔溶剂(deep eutectic solvent, DES)是通过氢键受体(hydrogen bond acceptor, HBA)和氢键供体(hydrogen bond donator, HBD)的氢键作用而形成的一种混合物,具有环境友好、制备简单、成本低、可生物降解等优点,在很多领域均有越来越广泛的应用。DES可以从不同样品中萃取和分离不同的目标化合物,其作为萃取溶剂具有独特的优势,可以获得较高的萃取效率且样品基质对分析过程的影响较小。在分散液液微萃取(dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction, DLLME)程序中,DES可以萃取复杂基质中的残留药物、金属离子和生物活性成分;与传统的萃取方法相比,该方法具有对有机试剂需求少,萃取效率更高等明显优势。而且,在DLLME中加入DES作为分散剂,能够加速萃取剂在样品溶液中的扩散,具有小型化、成本低等优点。相比于传统分散剂甲醇、乙腈的高挥发性、易燃性,DES的高稳定性、低毒性使其在绿色化学领域中更具有优势,应用更广。因此,DES与DLLME的结合近年来发展迅速。不仅如此,DES与固相萃取联合应用也具有广泛的应用前景,在与固相萃取小柱和搅拌棒联合应用时,DES可以作为洗脱剂,氢键供体及氢键给体的用量之比是洗脱效率的重要考察因素之一。在与磁性材料联用时,DES能与磁性多壁碳纳米管、磁性氧化石墨烯等纳米复合材料结合,通过氢键、π-π作用力和静电作用力等特异性吸附目标分析物。并且能够参与磁性凝胶和分子印迹聚合物的合成,推动磁性材料向绿色化学的方向发展,进一步拓展DES的应用。作为一类新兴的绿色溶剂,DES在化合物的萃取分离技术方面受到广泛关注,在不同的萃取技术中扮演了不同的角色,并表现出良好的性能,因此逐渐成为绿色化学领域的研究重点。该文整合了DES在萃取分离技术中的研究进展,介绍了DES的制备、性质和分类,对DES在DLLME和固相萃取中的应用进行了总结和归类,并展望了DES在萃取分离技术中的应用前景,为DES未来的应用提供参考。     

Using natural deep eutectic solvents for the extraction of metabolites in Byrsonima intermedia leaves

Natural deep eutectic solvents have been used as an alternative to organic solvents for the extraction of plants metabolites, allowing for the extraction of compounds of different polarities, while being inexpensive, non‐toxic, and easy to prepare. This work presents the comparison of the chromatographic profiles by high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode‐array detection obtained from Byrsonima intermedia (Malpighiaceae) using five choline chloride‐based natural deep eutectic solvents, in addition to the most used traditional extraction solvents, methanol/water 7:3 and ethanol/water 7:3 v/v. A reference extract was used to tentatively identify compounds by high‐performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The water content appeared to be important for the extraction efficiency and the mixture choline chloride/glycerol was shown to be the best candidate for efficiently extracting this matrix when compared with the traditional extraction media in addition to being far greener as shown by the environmental analysis tool. Seven phenolic compounds (digalloyl quinic acid, proanthocyanidin dimer, galloylproanthocyanidin dimer, quercetin‐O‐hexoside, galloyl quercetin hexoside, quercetin‐O‐pentoside, and galloyl quercetin pentoside) were tentatively identified in all extracts. Moreover, the influence of these solvents on the antioxidant activity of the extracts was studied and the results for choline chloride/glycerol extracts were very similar to that of the traditional extraction solvents.     

Potential use of deep eutectic solvents to facilitate lignocellulosic biomass utilization and conversion

High reliance on crude oil for energy consumption results in the urgent need to explore and develop alternative renewable sources. One of the most promising routes is the transformation of biomass into biofuels and chemicals. The introduction of deep eutectic solvents in 2004 received a considerable amount of attention across different research fields, particularly in biomass processing. The effectiveness of deep eutectic solvents in breaking down the recalcitrant structure in biomass highlights its impact on the transformation of biomass into various value-added products. In addition, deep eutectic solvents are widely regarded as promising “green” solvents due to their low cost, low toxicity, and biodegradable properties. In this paper, some background information on lignocellulosic biomass and deep eutectic solvents is given. Furthermore, the roles of deep eutectic solvents in biomass processing are discussed, focusing on the impacts of deep eutectic solvents on the selectivity of chemical processes and dissolution of biomass. This review also highlights the advantages and limitations of deep eutectic solvents associated with their usage in biomass valorization.