Accurate measurements of thermodynamic properties of solutes in ionic liquids using inverse gas chromatography

Investigation and characterization of deep eutectic solvent (DES) based stationary phase in gas chromatography

In this study, the preparation of the stationary phase based on the deep eutectic solvent (DES) was investigated along with the measurement of thermodynamic parameters. The physical characterization of the synthesized sample was investigated by Thermogravimetric (TGA), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) analyses. Thermodynamic parameters measured to express the potential ability of the constructed stationary phase were McReynolds constants, partition coefficient, Abraham system constants, ∆, activity coefficient at infinite dilution (γi∞), and selectivity (Sij∞). For this purpose, the parameters were investigated in different amounts of stationary phase (SP) loading including 5, 10, 15 and 18 %w/w and also at three temperatures of 40, 70 and 100 °C. The prepared stationary phase with moderate polarity had the potential to separate BTEXs, aromatic compounds and alcohols due to strong interactions caused by hydrogen bonds. It was investigated the improved performance of the stationary phase prepared with carbowax. Finally, the performance of SP-DES stationary phase separation was investigated for different analytes including alkanes, alcohols and aromatic compounds.

Thermodynamic Characterization of Polyetherimide/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites

The aim of this study is to examine the interactions of composite materials obtained by adding single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) to polyetherimide (ULTEM) in different weight ratios with various organic solvents, and to evaluate the solubility of composites in these organic solvents. The characterization of prepared composites was performed with SEM analysis. Thermodynamic properties of ULTEM/SWCNT composites were determined by the inverse gas chromatography (IGC) method at 260-285°C in infinite dilution. According to the IGC method, the retention behaviors were examined by passing different organic solvent vapors over the composites used as stationary phase, and retention diagrams were drawn using the obtained retention data. Thermodynamic parameters including Flory-Huggins interaction parameters (${\chi}_{12}^{\infty }$), equation of state interaction parameters (${\chi}_{12}^{\ast }$), weight fraction activity coefficients in infinite dilution (${\Omega}_1^{\infty }$), effective exchange energy parameters (${\chi}_{\mathrm{eff}}$), partial molar sorption enthalpies ($\Delta{\overline{H}}_1^S$), partial molar dissolution enthalpies in infinite dilution ($\Delta{\overline{H}}_1^{\infty }$) and molar evaporation enthalpies ($\Delta{\overline{H}}_v$) were calculated using the linear retention diagrams. According to ${\chi}_{12}^{\infty }$, ${\chi}_{12}^{\ast }$, ${\Omega}_1^{\infty }$ and ${\chi}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ values, organic solvents were found to be poor solvents for composites at all temperatures. Besides, the solubility parameters of composites were determined by IGC method at infinite dilution.

Separation and Enrichment of Selected Polar and Non-Polar Organic Micro-Pollutants—The Dual Nature of Quaternary Ammonium Ionic Liquid

In this study, the dual nature of quaternary ammonium ionic liquid–didecyldimethylammonium perchlorate, [DDA][ClO4], was evaluated. A novel and sensitive in situ ionic liquid dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method (in situ IL-DLLME) combined with magnetic retrieval (MR) was applied to enrich and separate selected organic micro-pollutants, both polar and non-polar. The magnetic support relied on using unmodified magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) prepared by the co-precipitation of Fe2+/Fe3+ (Fe3O4). The separation technique was on-lined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC–DAD) verified by inverse gas chromatography. An anion exchanger, NaClO4, was added to form an in situ hydrophobic IL. The fine droplets of [DDA][ClO4], molded in aqueous samples, functioned as an extractant for isolating the studied compounds. Then the carrier MNPs were added to separate the IL from the water matrix. The supernatant-free sample was desorbed in acetonitrile (MeCN) and injected into the HPLC system. The applicability of [DDA][ClO4] as an extraction solvent in the MR in situ IL-DLLME method was checked by the selectivity parameters (Sij∞) at infinite dilution. The detection limit (LOD) ranged from 0.011 to 0.079 µg L−1 for PAHs and from 0.012 to 0.020 µg L−1 for benzophenones. The method showed good linearity with correlation coefficients (r2) ranging from 0.9995 to 0.9999.

Determination of physicochemical properties of ionic liquids by gas chromatography

Over the years room temperature ionic liquids have gained attention as solvents with favorable environmental and technical features. Both chromatographic and conventional methods afford suitable tools for the study of their physicochemical properties. Use of gas chromatography compared to conventional methods for the measurement of physicochemical properties of ionic liquids have several advantages; very low sample concentrations, high accuracy, faster measurements, use of wider temperature range and the possibility to determine physicochemical properties of impure samples. Also, general purpose gas chromatography instruments are widely available in most laboratories thus alleviating the need to purchase more specific instruments for less common physiochemical measurements. Some of the main types of physicochemical properties of ionic liquids accessible using gas chromatography include gas-liquid partition constants, infinite dilution activity coefficients, partial molar quantities, solubility parameters, system constants of the solvation parameter model, thermal stability, transport properties, and catalytic and other surface properties.

Extremely Low Vapor-Pressure Data as Access to PC-SAFT Parameter Estimation for Ionic Liquids and Modeling of Precursor Solubility in Ionic Liquids

Precursor solubility is a crucial factor in industrial applications, dominating the outcome of reactions and purification steps. The outcome and success of thermodynamic modelling of this industrially important property with equations of states, such as Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT), vastly depends on the quality of the pure-component parameters. The pure-component parameters for low-volatile compounds such as ionic liquids (ILs) have been commonly estimated using mixture properties, e. g. the osmotic pressure of aqueous solutions. This leads to parameters that depend on the solvent, and transferability to other mixtures often causes poor modeling results. Mixture-independent experimental properties would be a more suitable basis for the parameter estimation offering a way to universal parameter sets. Model parameters for ILs are available in the literature [10.1016/j.fluid.2012.05.029], but they were estimated using pure-IL density data. The present work focuses on a step towards a more universal estimation strategy that includes new experimental vapor-pressure data of the pure IL. ILs exhibit an almost negligible vapor pressure in magnitude of usually 10-5  Pa even at elevated temperatures. In this work, such vapor-pressure data of a series of 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium-based [C2 mim]-ILs with various IL-anions (e. g. tetrafluoroborate [BF4 ]- , hexafluorophosphate [PF6 ]- , bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [NTf2 ]- ) were experimentally determined and subsequently used for PC-SAFT parameter estimation. The so-determined parameters were used to predict experimental molecular precursor solubility in ILs and infinitely diluted activity coefficients of various solvents in ILs. The parameters were further compared to modeling results using classical parametrization methods (use of liquid-density data only for the molecular PC-SAFT and the ion-based electrolyte PC-SAFT). As a result, the modeled precursor solubilities using the new approach are much more precise than using the classical parametrization methods, and required binary parameters were found to be much smaller (if needed). In sum, including the pure-component vapor-pressure data of ILs opens the door towards parameter estimation that is not biased by mixture data. This procedure might be suitable also for polymers and for all kind of ionic species but needs extension to ion-specific parametrization in the long term.

Prevalence of enteropathogens and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern in puppies with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis

AIM

Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE) ranging from mild to severe forms is commonly encountered in puppies. The aim of the study was to identify the prevalence of common enteropathogens and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern in puppies reported with HGE.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The canine HGE activity index, with little modification, was adopted to identify Grade III/severely affected puppies below 6 months of age. Fecal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was employed to screen and compare the enteropathogens in puppies with hemorrhagic diarrhea and healthy control.

RESULTS

Canine parvovirus 2b was identified in 90.3% of the diarrheic and 10% of the non-diarrheic healthy puppies. Clostridium difficile was identified in all the diarrheic puppies and in 80% of the healthy puppies. Among the diarrheic puppies, 17.7% were positive for Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin, 9.7% were positive for C. perfringens alpha toxin, 6.4% were positive for Escherichia coli shiga toxin, 6.4% were positive for E. coli enterotoxin (LT), and 3.2% were positive for canine distemper virus. Whereas, none of the healthy puppies were positive for these bacteria and toxins. Fecal antibiotic sensitivity test pattern revealed gentamicin to be sensitive in 95% of the cases, azithromycin in 50%, enrofloxacin in 25%, cefotaxime in 20%, and tetracycline in 5% of the cases.

CONCLUSION

Parvoviral enteritis is predominant among puppies. Yet, bacteria and their toxins also play an important role in HGE. Gentamicin has higher sensitivity against the enteropathogens associated with the condition.

Characterization of a dicationic imidazolium-based ionic liquid as a gas chromatography stationary phase

Here we report the characteristics of a new synthesized ionic liquid, 1,9-di(N-naphthalen-2-ylimidazolium)nonane bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ([C₉(2NPTim)₂][(NTf₂)₂]), as a stationary phase by inverse gas chromatography. The McReynolds constants demonstrated that the [C₉(2NPTim)₂][(NTf₂)₂] had an average polarity of 667 and polarity number P.N.=75, suggesting its polar nature. The solvation properties of the new stationary phase were determined by the calculation of Abraham solvation system constants, whereby the results showed that its major interactions with the analytes included H-bond basicity (a), dipole-dipole (s) and dispersive (l) interactions. The activity coefficients (γ^∞) and selectivities (S_IJ^∞) at infinite dilution were also determined for various polar and nonpolar organic solutes at different temperatures. The separation performance of the [C₉(2NPTim)₂][(NTf₂)₂] stationary phase was evaluated by GC separations of different analytes, including normal alkanes and aromatic compounds. The TGA results showed that the stationary phase had high thermal stability up to 420°C.

Differential solute gas response in ionic-liquid-based QCM arrays: elucidating design factors responsible for discriminative explosive gas sensing

An eight-sensor array coupling a chemoselective room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) transduction is presented in this work in order to demonstrate the power of this approach in differentiating closely related analytes in sensory devices. The underlying mechanism behind the specific sensory response was explored by (i) studying mass loading and viscoelasticity effects of the sensing layers, predominantly through variation in damping impedance, the combination of which determines the sensitivity; (ii) creation of a solvation model based on Abraham's solvation descriptors which reveals the fact that polarizability and lipophilicity are the main factors influencing the dissolution of gas analytes into the RTILs; and (iii) determination of enthalpy and entropy values for the studied interactions and comparison via a simulation model, which is also effective for pattern discrimination, in order to establish a foundation for the analytical scientist as well as inspiration for synthetic pathways and innovative research into next-generation sensory approaches. The reported sensors displayed an excellent sensitivity with detection limit of <0.2%, fast response and recovery, and a workable temperature range of 27-55 °C and even higher. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) showed a discrimination accuracy of 86-92% for nitromethane and 1-ethyl-2-nitrobenzene, 71% for different mixtures of nitromethane, and 100% for these analytes when thermodynamic parameters were used as input data. We envisage applications to detecting other nitroaromatics and security-related gas targets, and high-temperature or real-time situations where manual access is restricted, opening up new horizons in chemical sensing.

Phase equilibria and modeling of pyridinium-based ionic liquid solutions

The phase diagrams of the ionic liquid (IL) N-butyl-4-methylpyridinium bis{(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl}imide ([BM(4)Py][NTf(2)]) with water, an alcohol (1-butanol, 1-hexanol, 1-octanol, 1-decanol), an aromatic hydrocarbon (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, n-propylbenzene), an alkane (n-hexane, n-heptane, n-octane), or cyclohexane have been measured at atmospheric pressure using a dynamic method. This work includes the characterization of the synthesized compound by water content and also by differential scanning calorimetry. Phase diagrams for the binary systems of [BM(4)Py][NTf(2)] with all solvents reveal eutectic systems with regards to (solid-liquid) phase equilibria and show immiscibility in the liquid phase region with an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) in most of the mixtures. The phase equilibria (solid, or liquid-liquid) for the binary systems containing aliphatic hydrocarbons reported here exhibit the lowest solubility and the highest immiscibility gap, a trend which has been observed for all ILs. The reduction of experimental data has been carried out using the nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) correlation equation. The phase diagrams reported here have been compared with analogous phase diagrams reported previously for systems containing the IL N-butyl-4-methylpyridinium tosylate and other pyridinium-based ILs. The influence of the anion of the IL on the phase behavior has been discussed.