Distillable Ionic Liquids: Reversible Amide O Alkylation

Chemical Vapor Deposition of Ionic Liquids for the Fabrication of Ionogel Films and Patterns

Film deposition and high-resolution patterning of ionic liquids (ILs) remain a challenge, despite a broad range of applications that would benefit from this type of processing. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of ILs. The IL-CVD method is based on the formation of a non-volatile IL through the reaction of two vaporized precursors. Ionogel micropatterns can be easily obtained via the combination of IL-CVD and standard photolithography, and the resulting microdrop arrays can be used as microreactors. The IL-CVD approach will facilitate leveraging the properties of ILs in a range of applications and microfabricated devices.

Value-added products from thermochemical treatments of contaminated e-waste plastics

The rise of electronic waste (e-waste) generation around the globe has become a major concern in recent times and its recycling is mostly focused on the recovery of valuable metals, such as gold, silver, and copper, etc. However, e-waste consists of a significant weight fraction of plastics (25-30%) which are either discarded or incinerated. There is a growing need for recycling of these e-waste plastics. The majority of them are made from high-quality polymers (composites), such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), high impact polystyrene (HIPS), polycarbonate (PC), polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP) and epoxies. These plastics are often contaminated with hazardous materials, such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and heavy metals (such as Pb and Hg). Under any thermal stress (thermal degradation), the Br present in the e-waste plastics produces environmentally hazardous pollutants, such as hydrogen bromide or polybrominated diphenyl ethers/furans (PBDE/Fs). The discarded plastics can lead to the leaching of toxins into the environment. It is important to remove the toxins from the e-waste plastics before recycling. This review article gives a detailed account of e-waste plastics recycling and recovery using thermochemical processes, such as extraction (at elevated temperature), incineration (combustion), hydrolysis, and pyrolysis (catalytic/non catalytic). A basic framework of the existing processes has been established by reviewing the most interesting findings in recent times and the prospects that they open in the field recycling of e-waste plastics.

Competition between N and O: use of diazine N-oxides as a test case for the Marcus theory rationale for ambident reactivity

The preferred site of alkylation of diazine N-oxides by representative hard and soft alkylating agents was established conclusively using the 1H-15N HMBC NMR technique in combination with other NMR spectroscopic methods. Alkylation of pyrazine N-oxides (1 and 2) occurs preferentially on nitrogen regardless of the alkylating agent employed, while O-methylation of pyrimidine N-oxide (3) is favoured in its reaction with MeOTf. As these outcomes cannot be explained in the context of the hard/soft acid/base (HSAB) principle, we have instead turned to Marcus theory to rationalise these results. Marcus intrinsic barriers (ΔG ‡ 0) and Δr G° values were calculated at the DLPNO-CCSD(T)/def2-TZVPPD/SMD//M06-2X-D3/6-311+G(d,p)/SMD level of theory for methylation reactions of 1 and 3 by MeI and MeOTf, and used to derive Gibbs energies of activation (ΔG ‡) for the processes of N- and O-methylation, respectively. These values, as well as those derived directly from the DFT calculations, closely reproduce the observed experimental N- vs. O-alkylation selectivities for methylation reactions of 1 and 3, indicating that Marcus theory can be used in a semi-quantitative manner to understand how the activation barriers for these reactions are constructed. It was found that N-alkylation of 1 is favoured due to the dominant contribution of Δr G° to the activation barrier in this case, while O-alkylation of 3 is favoured due to the dominant contribution of the intrinsic barrier (ΔG ‡ 0) for this process. These results are of profound significance in understanding the outcomes of reactions of ambident reactants in general.

ROTf-induced annulation of heteroatom reagents and unsaturated substrates leading to cyclic compounds

The development of metal-free organic reactions is one of the hotspots in the synthesis of cyclic compounds. ROTf (alkyl trifluoromethanesulfonates), due to their good electrophilicity, are powerful alkylating reagents at heteroatoms such as nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus to induce an electrophilic centre for carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bond formation. Inspired by this chemistry, a variety of research concentrating on heterocycles synthesis has been carried out. In this review, we mainly summarize the ROTf-induced annulation of heteroatom reagents such as nitriles, carbodiimides, azobenzenes, isothiocyanates, aldehydes, isocyanates and phosphaalkene with themselves or alkynes to afford cyclic compounds.

Recovery and purification of ionic liquids from solutions: a review

With low melting point, extremely low vapor pressure and non-flammability, ionic liquids have been attracting much attention from academic and industrial fields. Great efforts have been made to facilitate their applications in catalytic processes, extraction, desulfurization, gas separation, hydrogenation, electronic manufacturing, etc. To reduce the cost and environmental effects, different technologies have been proposed to recover the ionic liquids from different solutions after their application. This review is mainly focused on the recent advances of the recovery and purification of ionic liquids from solutions. Several methods for recovery of ionic liquids including distillation, extraction, adsorption, membrane separation, aqueous two-phase extraction, crystallization and external force field separation, are introduced and discussed systematically. Some industrial applications of ionic liquid recovery and purification methods are selected for discussion. Additionally, considerations on the combined design of different methods and process optimization have also been touched on to provide potential insights for future development of ionic liquid recovery and purification.

Thermal, electrochemical and radiolytic stabilities of ionic liquids

Ionic liquids show instability when exposed to high temperature, to high voltage as electrolytes, or under irradiation.

Understanding the role of water in the interaction of ionic liquids with wood polymers

Hemicellulose lean pulps are a raw material source for numerous high value products. We have previously presented the IONCELL-P(ulp) process, a hemicellulose extraction method, based on a binary mixture of ionic liquid and water. The IONCELL-P process does not suffer from yield losses or polymer degradation and retains the Cellulose I crystalline form. In this paper, a selection of cellulose dissolving ionic liquids is tested, in order to compare their applicability in the process. We demonstrate that the extraction selectivity towards low molar mass polymers is related to the anion's ability to accept hydrogen bonds (Kamlet-Taft β-value), if divided by the water molar fraction of the solvent system. Pulp consistency, solvent system viscosity and pH are investigated in order to identify the factors affecting the extraction efficiency. The results show that all the tested ionic liquid-water mixtures were able to dissolve hemicelluloses, but there were differences in their efficiency, selectivity and the ability to process high pulp consistencies.

Reversibility of imido-based ionic liquids: a theoretical and experimental study

Theoretical and experimental methods were used to study the reversibility of a series of imido-based ionic liquids.

Metal-Free Synthesis of meso-Aminoporphyrins through Reduction of meso-Azidoporphyrins Generated in Situ by Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions of meso-Bromoporphyrins

A facile and metal-free method for the preparation of free base meso-aminodiarylporphyrins from readily available meso-bromodiarylporphyrins is described. Simple treatment of meso-bromoporphyrins with sodium azide and sodium ascorbate in DMF affords the corresponding meso-aminoporphyrins in very good yields. This method involves the aromatic nucleophilic substitution (S_NAr) of a bromo group with an azido group and the subsequent in situ reduction of the introduced azido group by sodium ascorbate. This amination reaction can be scaled up to gram scale without any decrease of the product yield. The amination reaction of free base meso-dibromoporphyrin affords a monoaminated product selectively, whereas that of the Ni(II) complex furnishes a diaminated product that is oxidized by air under ambient conditions but isolable as a trifluoroacetyl ester. Metal-insertion reactions of the obtained free base aminoporphyrins afford the corresponding metal complexes (Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Pd(II)) all in good yields except the Pd(II) complex. Synthetic methods for the preparation of N-mono- or dialkylaminoporphyrins from the free base meso-aminoporphyrins have been also established.

Orthoamide und Iminiumsalze, XC. Das RIBIL-Konzept – Reaktive Iminiumsalz-basierte ionische Flüssigkeiten

Es wird vorgeschlagen, das Akronym „RIBIL“ für flüssige, reaktive, Iminiumsalz-basierte Verbindungen zu verwenden. Eine Zusammenstellung von strukturell unterschiedlichen RIBILs wird vorgestellt. Die Anwendung von RIBILs als Reaktionsmedium ist vorteilhaft, da sie bei geeigneter Wahl der Reaktanden eine besonders einfache Aufarbeitung erlaubt. Die Reaktion äquimolarer Mengen an aliphatischen Carbonsäuren und Alkoholen in N,N-Dimethyl-(hydroxymethylen)iminium-hydrogensulfat (DMF/H2SO4-Addukt) (20c) führt zu Carbonsäureestern, die sich aus dem Reaktionsgemisch als zweite Phase abscheiden.

Peroxide detected in imidazolium-based ionic liquids and approaches for reducing its presence in aqueous and non-aqueous environments

Peroxide species appearing in imidazolium-based ionic liquids could be removed by salen–manganese complexes or the enzyme catalase.

Gas promotes the crystallization of nano-sized metal–organic frameworks in ionic liquid

Gas can promote metal–organic framework (MOF) crystallization and MOF nanoparticles were obtained at room temperature.