Sorption of imidazolium-based ionic liquids to aquatic sediments

Emerging impacts of ionic liquids on eco-environmental safety and human health

Owing to their unique physicochemical properties, ionic liquids (ILs) have been rapidly applied in diverse areas, such as organic synthesis, electrochemistry, analytical chemistry, functional materials, pharmaceutics, and biomedicine. The increase in the production and application of ILs has resulted in their release into aquatic and terrestrial environments. Because of their low vapor pressure, ILs cause very little pollution in the atmosphere compared to organic solvents. However, ILs are highly persistent in aquatic and terrestrial environments due to their stability, and therefore, potentially threaten the safety of eco-environments and human health. Specifically, the environmental translocation and retention of ILs, or their accumulation in organisms, are all related to their physiochemical properties, such as hydrophobicity. Based on results of ecotoxicity, cytotoxicity, and toxicity in mammalian models, the mechanisms involved in IL-induced toxicity include damage of cell membranes and induction of oxidative stress. Recently, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques have been used in mining and modeling toxicity data to make meaningful predictions. Major future challenges are also discussed. This review will accelerate our understanding of the safety issues of ILs and serve as a guideline for the design of the next generation of ILs.

Ionic liquids as environmental hazards - Crucial data in view of future PBT and PMT assessment

Ionic liquids (ILs) constitute a large group of chemical compounds. They have gained much attention among scientists and industry due to their unique properties. Due to the fact that ILs are purely ionic compounds, there is the possibility to design an enormous number of cation and anion combinations, making them designer solvents. Thus it also creates the possibility of producing more environmentally benign solvents. However, significant drawbacks related mainly to their toxicity and persistence have already been noticed. Furthermore the interest in these compounds is constantly growing and their impact on the environment should be defined. More and more ILs are produced or imported in the amount higher than 10 tonnes per year and the group of ILs registered in REACH is still expanding. Thus for an increasing number of compounds, it will be necessary to perform a PBT and PMT assessment using the criteria described in REACH. Therefore the data collected in this work thoroughly sort out the information on the toxicity, bioconcentration/bioaccumulation, biodegradation and mobility of ILs in the context of PBT and PMT assessment.

Ionic Liquids Toxicity-Benefits and Threats

Ionic liquids (ILs) are solvents with salt structures. Typically, they contain organic cations (ammonium, imidazolium, pyridinium, piperidinium or pyrrolidinium), and halogen, fluorinated or organic anions. While ILs are considered to be environmentally-friendly compounds, only a few reasons support this claim. This is because of high thermal stability, and negligible pressure at room temperature which makes them non-volatile, therefore preventing the release of ILs into the atmosphere. The expansion of the range of applications of ILs in many chemical industry fields has led to a growing threat of contamination of the aquatic and terrestrial environments by these compounds. As the possibility of the release of ILs into the environment s grow systematically, there is an increasing and urgent obligation to determine their toxic and antimicrobial influence on the environment. Many bioassays were carried out to evaluate the (eco)toxicity and biodegradability of ILs. Most of them have questioned their "green" features as ILs turned out to be toxic towards organisms from varied trophic levels. Therefore, there is a need for a new biodegradable, less toxic "greener" ILs. This review presents the potential risks to the environment linked to the application of ILs. These are the following: cytotoxicity evaluated by the use of human cells, toxicity manifesting in aqueous and terrestrial environments. The studies proving the relation between structures versus toxicity for ILs with special emphasis on directions suitable for designing safer ILs synthesized from renewable sources are also presented. The representants of a new generation of easily biodegradable ILs derivatives of amino acids, sugars, choline, and bicyclic monoterpene moiety are collected. Some benefits of using ILs in medicine, agriculture, and the bio-processing industry are also presented.

Highly Efficient and Recyclable Carbon-Nanofiber-Based Aerogels for Ionic Liquid-Water Separation and Ionic Liquid Dehydration in Flow-Through Conditions

Ionic liquids (ILs) are being widely used in many diverse areas of social interest, including catalysis, electrochemistry, etc. However, issues related to hygroscopicity of many ILs and the toxic and/or nonbiodegradable features of some of them limit their practical use. Developing materials capable of IL recovery from aqueous media and dehydration, thus allowing their recycling and subsequent reutilization, in a single and efficient process still poses a major challenge. Herein, electrically conductive aerogels composed of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with remarkable superhydrophobic features are prepared. CNF-based 3D aerogels are prepared through a cryogenic process, so called ice-segregation-induced self-assembly (ISISA) consisting of the unidirectional immersion of an aqueous chitosan (CHI) solution also containing CNFs in suspension into a liquid nitrogen bath, and subsequent freeze-drying. The CNF-based 3D aerogels prove effective for absorption of ILs from aqueous biphasic systems and recovery with quite low water contents just through a single process of filtration. Moreover, the electrical conductivity of CNF-based 3D aerogels is particularly interesting to treat highly viscous ILs because the Joule effect allows not only shortening of the absorption process but also enhancement of the flux rate when operating in flow-through conditions.

Recycling of 1,2-Dimethyl-3-propylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide Ionic Liquid by Stacked Cation and Anion Exchange Adsorption-Desorption

There are many advantages to using ionic liquids as solvents or catalysts in chemical processes. Their non-volatile characteristic and high cost, however, can pose economic, environmental, and long-term health concerns. As such, the recovery and recycling of ionic liquids have become essential to mitigate their environmental impact and to reduce costs. Numerous recovery and recycling methods have been reported, including distillation, extraction, membrane separation (a.k.a. filtration), adsorption, crystallization, gravity, and electrochemical separation. Whereas most of these methods recover both cations and anions of the ionic liquid as ion pairs, recycling methods such as single-phase ion exchange or mixed-ion exchange/non-ionic adsorption methods recover only one of the ionic liquid ions, typically the cation. These methods are frequently used for the recycling of ionic liquids having simple anions such as chloride or acetate, but are seldom employed for ionic liquids consisting of larger and more complex anions due to the added time and reagent costs necessary for the regeneration of the original ionic liquid. Herein, a combined cation and anion exchange adsorption-desorption method is presented that can effectively separate 1,2-dimethyl-3-propylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonimide) [DMPIm][NTf2] ionic liquid from neutral impurities. More importantly, the method is capable of recovery and recycling of the original ionic liquid. Concomitant desorption of both ionic liquid ions was achieved using 0.1 M NaCl: methanol (90:10 v/v) eluent followed by isolation using liquid–liquid extraction to afford high purity products and yields of approximately 60%.

Study on the Adsorption Behavior between an Imidazolium Ionic Liquid and Na-Montmorillonite

Interactions between 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (IL), an ionic liquid, and Na-montmorillonite (Na-MMT) were studied under different kinetic conditions to investigate the adsorption behavior of IL by Na-MMT. The adsorption of IL by Na-MMT was rapid, with a fast rate, reaching a capacity of 0.43 mmol/g, lower than Na-MMT's cation exchange capacity (CEC) of 0.90 mmol/g. Meanwhile, the highest adsorption rate occurred at the IL concentration of 1000 mg/L. The exchangeable cation of Na-MMT could not be completely substituted by the cation group of IL regardless of the IL concentration. Stoichiometric desorption experiments confirmed that the cation exchange was the dominating adsorption mechanism for the IL adsorption by Na-MMT. The pH value of the solution between 2 and 11 had a negligible effect on the adsorption amount of IL by Na-MMT. The cation group of IL interacted into the interlayer of Na-MMT successfully, resulting in the change in the wettability of Na-MMT. A bilayer formation of the cationic group should occur in the interlayer of the modified Na-MMT and the configuration of IL was dependent on the adsorption amount of IL. Furthermore, the thermal stability of the modified Na-MMT was also dependent on the adsorption amount of IL.

Effects of soil components and solution inorganic cations on interactions of imidazolium-based ionic liquid with soils

Effects of alkyl chain length of ionic liquid (IL), soil components and solution inorganic cations on a selected IL (1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium chloride, [OMIM]Cl) interaction with Chinese soils were investigated using batch sorption experiments. The results indicated that sorption energy was mainly controlled by chain length of [OMIM]Cl and contents of soil organic matter (SOM). [OMIM]Cl sorption on soils was mainly controlled by cation exchange process. Contributions of SOM and clay minerals (CMs) to [OMIM]Cl sorption were 7.3%-53.8% and 46.2%-92.7%, respectively. SOM possessed higher energy cation-exchange binding sites than CMs. To predict the sorption of [OMIM]Cl on soils, a model for the relationship between sorption coefficient (K_d) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) from soil components (SOM and CMs, i.e., CEC_SOM and CEC_CMs) as well as solution concentration (C_e) was established: LogK_d = Log(1.67*CEC_SOM + 3.22*CEC_CMs) - 0.58LogC_e. This model could provide a good prediction for sorption coefficients and the prediction errors were within 0.48 log unit. Competitive effects caused by inorganic cations followed the order of Ca²⁺ = Mg²⁺ > K⁺ > Na⁺. Concentrations and valence of coexisting ions both affect their competitive capability on [OMIM]Cl sorption. The finding of this study provided valuable information for evaluating the fate of [OMIM]Cl in soils.

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.

Assessment of the photocatalytic transformation of pyridinium-based ionic liquids in water

We studied some ionic liquids (ILs) belonging to the pyridinium class under photocatalytic treatment. In particularly, we analysed how the length of the alkyl chain, the kind of inorganic ion and the type of substituents could influence the disappearance rate, the mineralization extent, the acute toxicity and the transformation mechanism. For such, we selected some pyridinium derivatives with different alkyl chain but the same anion, namely tetrafluoroborate (1-ethylpyridinium, 1-butylpyridinium, 1-hexylpyridinium), with two alkyl substituents (4-methyl-1-butylpyridinium) and with a different substituent (1-cyanopropylpyridinium). Then, on a selected IL (1-butylpyridinium), we evaluate the role of different inorganic anions (bromine and chlorine). The results show that irrespective to the alkyl chain or the number of substituents, the transformation involved an attack to the alkyl chain, proceeded through the formation of harmless compounds and the mineralization was easily achieved within 4h. Nitrogen was mainly released as ammonium ion. When introducing a cyano group, the extent of nitrate ions and the number of possible transformation route increased. Conversely, the type of inorganic ion deeply affected the transformation pathways and the extent of mineralization. Actually, in the presence of bromide as anion, IL was only partially mineralized and the formation of highly persistent transformation products occurred.

Evaluation of risk assessment of new industrial pollutant, ionic liquids on environmental living systems

Ionic liquids (ILs) are much known for their promising alternative for volatile solvents in industries and gained popularity as a greener solvent, however industrial effluent discharge containing ILs are also increasing. There is a scarcity of information on the toxicity of ILs; the present study will explore different facts about their harmfulness. The toxic effects of five different ILs: [C₄MIM]Br, [Hx₃PC₁₄]N(CN)₂, [C₁₀MIM]BF₄, [BTDA]Cl and [C₄MPY]Cl were analysed on bacteria, fungi, plant and animal cells. Both Gram positive and negative bacteria were found to be more susceptible to [C₁₀MIM]BF₄ and [BTDA]Cl than [C₄MIM]Br, [Hx₃PC₁₄]N(CN)₂ and [C₄MPY]Cl, whereas fungi revealed quite a resistance to all ILs. All ILs were toxic towards Triticum aestivum affecting their roots and shoots, however [C₁₀MIM]BF₄ and [BTDA]Cl were more toxic amongst them. Studies on Allium cepa described their toxic behaviour at the genetic level by altering cell division and nuclear material. Furthermore, studies on human red blood cells described by % haemolysis in which [Hx₃PC₁₄]N(CN)₂ and [BTDA]Cl exhibited higher toxicity at very lower concentrations. While the genotoxic effect on blood lymphocytes exerted by [Hx₃PC₁₄]N(CN)₂, [C₁₀MIM]BF₄ and [BTDA]Cl confirmed their toxic effects on human cells.

Photochemical Transformation of Four Ionic Liquid Cation Structures in Aqueous Solution

Ionic liquids (ILs) are a new class of solvents expected to be used increasingly by the chemical industry in the coming years. Given their slow biodegradation and limited sorption affinities, IL cations have a high potential to reach aquatic environments. We investigated the fate of ILs in sunlit surface water by determining direct and indirect photochemical transformation rates of imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, and piperidinium cations. The photodegradation of all investigated IL cations was faster in solutions containing dissolved organic matter (DOM) than in ultrapure water, illustrating the importance of indirect photochemical processes. Experiments with model sensitizers and DOM isolates revealed that reactions with hydroxyl radicals dominated the transformation of tested IL cations. Bimolecular reaction rate constants with hydroxyl radicals ranged from (2.04 ± 0.37) × 10⁹ to (8.47 ± 0.97) × 10⁹ M^-1 s^-1 and showed an increase in rate constants with increasing carbon side-chain length. Consequently, average estimated half-lives of IL cations in sunlit surface water ranged from 32 ± 4 to 135 ± 25 days, highlighting the potential of IL cations to become persistent aquatic contaminants.

Environmental Application, Fate, Effects, and Concerns of Ionic Liquids: A Review

Ionic liquids (ILs) comprise mostly of organic salts with negligible vapor pressure and low flammability that are proposed as replacements for volatile solvents. ILs have been promoted as "green" solvents and widely investigated for their various applications. Although the utility of these chemicals is unquestionable, their toxic effects have attracted great attention. In order to manage their potential hazards and design environmentally benign ILs, understanding their environmental behavior, fate and effects is important. In this review, environmentally relevant issues of ILs, including their environmental application, environmental behavior and toxicity are addressed. In addition, also presented are the influence of ILs on the environmental fate and toxicity of other coexisting contaminants, important routes for designing nontoxic ILs and the techniques that might be adopted for the removal of ILs.

Biodegradation of imidazolium ionic liquids by activated sludge microorganisms

Biological properties of ionic liquids (ILs) have been usually tested with the help of standard biodegradation or ecotoxicity tests. So far, several articles on the identification of intermediate metabolites of microbiological decay of ILs have been published. Simultaneously, the number of novel ILs with unrecognized characteristics regarding biodegradability and effect on organisms and environment is still increasing. In this work, seven imidazolium ionic liquids of different chemical structure were studied. Three of them are 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromides, while the other four are tetra- or completely substituted imidazolium iodides. This study focused on the identification of intermediate metabolites of the aforementioned ionic liquids subjected to biodegradation in a laboratory activated sludge system. Both fully substituted ionic liquids and 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide were barely biodegradable. In the case of two of them, no biotransformation products were detected. The elongation of the alkyl side chain made the IL more susceptible for microbiological decomposition. 1-Decyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide was biotransformed most easily. Its primary biodegradation up to 100 % could be achieved. Nevertheless, the cleavage of the imidazolium ring has not been observed.

Modification of a Ca-montmorillonite with ionic liquids and its application for chromate removal

Ionic liquids (ILs), due to their low vapor pressure, have been explored as green solvents for organic synthesis. In this study, the uptake of ILs on a high charge Ca-montmorillonite (MMT) and the use of the IL-modified MMT for the removal of anionic contaminants from water were systematically studied. Uptake of ILs by MMT was exclusively resulted from a cation exchange mechanism when the initial IL concentrations were less than the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and the sorbed ILs formed a monolayer conformation on the surface of MMT. When the initial IL concentrations were greater than the CMC, both cation exchange and hydrophobic interactions were responsible for the IL uptake. The IL molecules formed admicelles and the surface charge was reversed to positive balanced by counterion Cl(-) when the IL loading was higher than the cation exchange capacity of the mineral. The modified MMT could remove chromate from water instantaneously, with an adsorption capacity of 190 mmol/kg and a 99.5% removal efficiency at an initial chromate concentration of 2.6 mmol/L. These features could further expand the application of ILs and enable IL-modified MMT to be used as inexpensive sorbents for the removal of chromate and other oxyanions from water.

A brief overview of the potential environmental hazards of ionic liquids

Over past decades ionic liquids, a promising alternative to traditional organic solvents, have been dramatically expanding in popularity as a new generation of chemicals with potential uses in various areas in industry. In the literature these compounds have often been referred to as environmentally friendly; however, in recent years the perception of their greenness dramatically changed as the scientific community began to proactively assess the risk of their application based on the entire life-cycle. This review gives a brief overview of the current knowledge regarding the potential risks linked to the application of ionic liquids - from preparation to their disposal, with special emphasis on their potential environmental impacts and future directions in designing inherently safer ionic liquids.

Adsorption of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid by functional carbon microspheres from hydrothermal carbonization of cellulose

Functional carbonaceous material (FCM) loaded with carboxylic groups was prepared by hydrothermal carbonization of cellulose in the presence of acrylic acid. The resulting FCM was used as adsorbent for recovery of a water-soluble ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride ([BMIM][Cl]). The FCM consisted of microspheres (100-150 nm) and had a low surface area (ca. 20 m(2)/g), but exhibited adsorption capacity comparable to that of commercial activated carbon which can be attributed to the presence of high content of polar oxygenated groups (-OH, -C═O, -COOH) as revealed by spectral analyses. Sorption of [BMIM][Cl] onto FCM adsorbent could be well-described by pseudo-second-order kinetics. Thermodynamic and adsorption isothermal analyses revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous, exothermic, and could be described by the Freundlich adsorption model. The FCM adsorbent could be regenerated effectively and recycled for at least three times without loss of adsorption capacity. The results of this work provide a facile method for production of functional carbonaceous materials from renewable resources that can be used for treatment of aqueous streams containing small concentrations of ionic liquid, [BMIM][Cl].

Ion-exchange affinity of organic cations to natural organic matter: influence of amine type and nonionic interactions at two different pHs

Sorption to standard soil organic matter (SOM) has been studied for a wide variety of organic cations using a flow through method with fully aqueous medium as eluent. SOM sorption for weak bases (pK(a) 4.5-7) was stronger at pH 4.5 than at pH 7, indicating that the ion-exchange affinity of the cationic species to SOM was higher than the bulk partition coefficient of corresponding neutral species to SOM. In the range of pH 4.5-7, the effect of pH on the sorption coefficients for strong bases with pK(a) > 7 was small, within 0.3 log units. For cations with the molecular formula C(x)H(y)N, sorption was accurately predicted by a model accounting for size (increase with alkyl chain length) and type of charged group (1° amine >4° ammonium of equal size). In addition to the C(x)H(y)N-model, several empirical correction factors were derived from the data for organic cations with polar functional groups. Models based on K(OW) or pK(a) fail to explain differences in sorption affinity of the ionic species. Our data on ion-exchange affinities for 80 organic cations show many examples where specific chemical moieties, for example, CH(2)-units, aromatic rings or hydroxyl groups, contribute differently to the sorption coefficient as compared to bulk partitioning data of neutral compounds. Other sorption models that were evaluated to explain variation between compounds suffered from outliers of more than one log unit and did not reduce relative log mean standard errors below 0.5. A wider range of sorption coefficients and more sorption data in general are required to improve modeling efforts further.

Removal of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium cations with bacterial biosorbents from aqueous media

This study aims to determine whether biosorption can be used for the removal of ionic liquids (ILs), especially their cationic parts, from aqueous media. As a model IL, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM]OAc) was used. Five types of bacterial biosorbents were prepared from fermentation wastes through chemical modification of the bacterial surface. Screening study was performed to compare the cationic [EMIM] biosorption capacity among the bacterial biosorbents, indicating that the succinated Escherichia coli biomass (SB-E) was the best biosorbent for removing [EMIM] cations. The [EMIM] biosorption performance of SB-E was evaluated in detail through various experiments. The optimal pH range for [EMIM] biosorption was from 7 to 10, and biosorption equilibrium was reached within 10 min. The maximum uptake of SB-E was also estimated to be 72.6 mg/g. Moreover, [EMIM] cations were easily desorbed from [EMIM]-sorbed SB-E by adding acetic acid.

Interaction of Novel Ionic Liquids with Soils

With the constant development of new ionic liquids, the understanding of the chemical fate of these compounds also needs to be updated. To this effect, the interaction of a number of novel ionic liquids with soils was determined. Therefore, three novel headgroups (ammonium, phosphonium, or pyrrolidinium) with single or quaternary substitution were tested on a variety of soils with high-to-low organic matter content and high-to-low cation exchange capacity, thereby trying to capture the full range of possible soil interactions. It was found that the ionic liquids with single butyl alkyl chain interacted more strongly with the soils (especially with a higher cation exchange capacity), at lower concentrations, than the quad-substituted ionic liquids. However, the quad-substituted ionic liquids interacted more strongly at higher concentrations, due to the double-layer formation, and induced stronger dipole interaction with previously sorbed molecules.

Sorption of ionic liquids onto soils: experimental and chemometric studies

Chemometric analyses are a great tool to support typical experimental studies of the interactions of xenobiotics with natural environment. Such interpretations are able to determine statistically significant correlations and finally lead to identification of the major sorption factors. However, to effectively use chemometrics a bigger data set is required. Even though the ionic liquids are intensively studied, their complete fate or prediction of their behavior in the natural environment is still unclear. Therefore, to evaluate and distinguish the patterns of interactions of ILs in soil environment by chemometrics, sorption of nine ionic liquids (imidazolium and pyridinium chlorides) on 11 types of various soils was tested. Experimental studies indicated that compounds with longer alkyl side chains were sorbed far more strongly than weakly lipophilic ones. Moreover, salts with short and/or hydroxylated derivatives were more mobile in soils/sediments and thus, might cause a danger of contamination of surface or ground waters. Cluster analysis revealed that ionic liquids form two major clusters according to interaction with soil surface - one grouping compounds with short and hydroxylated alkyl side chains and the second with the rest of compounds. Pairwise scatterplots for correlations between soil variables and sorption coefficients indicated that the main soil parameter responsible for the sorption was cation exchange capacity. Correlation of sorption coefficients, K(d), with pH indicated the existence of lower sorption potency in lower pH values.

Sorption to dissolved humic acid and its impacts on the toxicity of imidazolium based ionic liquids

Two typical ionic liquids (ILs), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C4MIM]Cl) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C8MIM]Cl), are demonstrated to associate strongly with dissolved organic matter (DOM) with distribution coefficients (KDOC) in the range of 10(4.2) to 10(4.6) for Aldrich humic acid (used as model DOM). With the increase of humic acid concentration to 11 μg/mL DOC (dissolved organic carbon), the free fraction (ratio of freely dissolved to total concentration) of [C4MIM]Cl and [C8MIM]Cl reduced to about 0.85 and 0.79, respectively. This reduction of freely dissolved concentration gave rise to remarkable reduction of bioavailability and toxicity of the two ILs. MTT assay with HepG2 cell lines showed that the EC50 values were 459 μmol/L for [C4MIM]Cl and 12 μmol/L for [C8MIM]Cl, respectively, and the cell viability increased about 50% in the presence of trace amount of humic acid (1 μg/mL DOC). The SOS/umu test indicated mutagenicity for [C4MIM]Cl at levels above 664 μmol/L, and the genotoxicity was diminished with the addition of trace humic acid (0.00000374-0.374 μg/mL DOC). The studied ILs showed acute toxicity toward model fish medaka with a 96 h median lethal concentration (LC50) of 2254 μmol/L for [C4MIM]Cl and 366 μmol/L for [C8MIM]Cl. The addition of humic acid (5.49 μg/mL DOC for [C8MIM]Cl, 1.37 μg/mL DOC for [C4MIM]Cl) to IL solutions reduced the death rate of medaka to a minimum value of ∼25% of that at zero DOC. Our results suggest that DOM may play an important role in determining the environmental fate and toxicity of imidazolium-based ILs, and its effects should be taken into account in assessing the environmental risk of ILs.

Environmental fate and toxicity of ionic liquids: a review

Ionic liquids (ILs) are organic salts with low melting point that are being considered as green replacements for industrial volatile organic compounds. The reputation of these solvents as "environmental friendly" chemicals is based primarily on their negligible vapor pressure. Nonetheless, the solubility of ILs in water and a number of literature documenting toxicity of ILs to aquatic organisms highlight a real cause for concern. The knowledge of ILs behavior in the terrestrial environment, which includes microbial degradation, sorption and desorption, is equally important since both soil and aquatic milieu are possible recipients of IL contamination. This article reviews the achievements and current status of environmental risk assessment of ILs, and hopefully provides insights into this research frontier.

Study of ionic liquid cations transport in soil

Ionic liquids are a form of organic or inorganic molten salts consisting positive and negative ions. There have been several attempts of their utilization in industry. These substances can be released from industrial sites into water and soils thus causing contamination. The most significant chemical processes affecting the behavior of ionic liquid cations in soils are related to their transport. The major aim of this work was to investigate the transport process of imidazolium ionic liquids in soils by column leaching experiments. Five types of soil with varying total organic carbon (TOC) content (<0.1%, 0.5%, 4%, 9.9%, 44.8%), were utilized in the study of transportation of three ionic liquid chlorides namely: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium (EMIM), 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium (BMIM), 1-n-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium (HMIM). The results obtained indicated significant ability to immobilize ionic liquid cations by soils with higher organic carbon content. The higher TOC value in soil results in lower amounts of solutes migrating through the soil. Factorial regression has been applied to modeling of the results. It relates soil and the ionic liquid cation properties to the retardation of this cation in soil profile.

Sorption and desorption of imidazolium based ionic liquids in different soil types

This study investigates the influence of the two different clay minerals kaolinite and smectite as well as of organic matter on the cation sorption and desorption behaviour of three imidazolium based ionic liquids -1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (IM14 BF(4)), 1-methyl-3-octyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (IM18 BF(4)) and 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide (IM14 (CF(3)SO(2))(2)N) - in soil. The German standard soil Lufa 2.2 - a natural soil classified as a loamy sand - was the basis substrate for the different soil compositions and also served as a reference soil. The addition of organic matter and clays increases the sorption of the substances and in particular smectite had striking effects on the sorption capacity for all three ionic liquids indicating that ionic interactions play an important role for sorption and desorption processes of ionic liquids in soil. One exception was for kaolinite-containing soils and the IM14 cation: with (CF(3)SO(2))(2)N(-) as an anion the sorption was identical at either 10 wt% or 15 wt% clay content, and with BF(4)(-) sorption was even lower at 15 wt% kaolinite than at 10 wt%. Desorption was weak for IM18 BF(4), presumably owing to the longer alkyl side chain. With regard to the influence of kaolinite on desorption, the same pattern was observed as it was found for the sorption of IM14 BF(4) and IM14 (CF(3)SO(2))(2)N.

Biodegradation of oxygenated and non-oxygenated imidazolium-based ionic liquids in soil

Aerobic biodegradation of ionic liquids in soil was monitored for the first time. The tests, followed over six months according to ASTM D 5988-96, were carried out on the four ionic liquids obtained from 1-R-3-methylimidazolium cations, with R=CH(3)(CH(2))(3) and CH(3)O(CH(2))(2), and the tetrafluoroborate and dicyanamide counter anions. The n-butyl derivatives, after an induction period of about two months, were found to be degradable, although the degradation rate with the dicyanamide anion was smaller. In contrast, no significant production of CO(2) was observed in the tests with the methoxyethyl derivatives. Calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level were carried out to characterize the atomic charge distributions and frontier orbital structures of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations and point out the changes caused by replacement of a CH(2) group of the alkyl chain with an oxygen atom. The calculations predict an overall negative charge on the nitrogen atoms of the imidazolium-based cations. The energies of the highest occupied (pi) MO and lowest empty (pi( *)) MO are only slightly perturbed by the length and nature of the alkyl chain. However, the electron-donor properties of the oxy derivatives are radically increased. The HOMO becomes a lone pair orbital mainly localized on the oxygen atom, and its ionization energy is sizeably smaller than that of the outermost ring pi MO.