Lipidic ionic liquid stationary phases for the separation of aliphatic hydrocarbons by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

Are nature's strategies the solutions to the rational design of low-melting, lipophilic ionic liquids?

Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as a new class of materials, displaying a unique capability to self-assemble into micelles, liposomes, liquid crystals, and microemulsions. Despite evident interest, advancements in the controlled formation of amphiphilic ILs remain in the early stages. Taking inspiration from nature, we introduced the concept of lipid-like (or lipid-inspired) ILs more than a decade ago, aiming to create very low-melting, highly lipophilic ILs that are potentially bio-innocuous - a combination of attributes that is frequently antithetical but highly desirable from several application-specific standpoints. Lipid-like ILs are a subclass of functional organic liquid salts that include a range of lipidic side chains such as saturated, unsaturated, linear, branched, and thioether while retaining melting points below room temperature. It was observed in several homologous series of [Cnmim] ILs that elongation of N-appended alkyl chains to greater than seven carbons leads to a substantial increase in melting point (Tm) - which is the most characteristic feature of ILs. Accordingly, it is challenging to develop ILs with low Tm values while preserving their hydrophobicity and self-organizing properties. We found that two alternative Tm depressive approaches are useful. One of these is the replacement of the double bonds with thioether moieties in the alkyl chains, as detailed in several published papers detailing the chemistry of these ILs. Employing thiol-ene and thiol-yne click reactions is a facile, robust, and orthogonal method to overcome the challenges associated with the synthesis of alkyl thioether-functionalized ILs. The second approach involves replacing the double bonds with the cisoid cyclopropyl motif, mimicking the strategy used by certain organisms to modulate cell membrane fluidity. This discovery has the potential to greatly impact the utilization of lipid-like ILs in various applications, including gene delivery, lubricants, heat transfer fluids, and haloalkane separations, among others. This feature article presents a concise, historical overview, highlighting key findings from our work while offering speculation about the future trajectory of this de novo class of soft organic-ion materials.

Cyclopropane as an Unsaturation "Effect Isostere": Lowering the Melting Points in Lipid-like Ionic Liquids

The replacement of unsaturation with a cyclopropane motif as a (bio)isostere is a widespread strategy in bacteria to tune the fluidity of lipid bilayers and protect membranes when exposed to adverse environmental conditions, e.g., high temperature, low pH, etc. Inspired by this phenomenon, we herein address the relative effect of the cyclopropanation, both cis and trans configurations, on melting points, packing efficiency, and order of a series of lipid-like ionic liquids via a combination of thermophysical analysis, X-ray crystallography, and computational modeling. The data indicate there is considerable structural latitude possible when designing highly lipophilic ionic liquids that exhibit low melting points. While cyclopropanation of the lipid-like ionic liquids provides more resistance to aerobic degradation than their olefin analogs, the impact on the melting point decrease is not as pronounced. Our results demonstrate that incorporating one or more cyclopropyl moieties in long aliphatic chains of imidazolium-based ionic liquids is highly effective in lowering the melting points of such materials relative to their counterparts bearing linear, saturated, or thioether side chains. It is shown that the cyclopropane moiety effectively disrupts packing, favoring formation of gauche conformer in the side chains, resulting in enhancement of fluidity. This was irrespective of the configuration of the methylene bridge, although marked differences in the effect of cis- and trans-monocyclopropanated ILs on the melting points were observed.

Polymerized phosphonium ionic liquid functionalized silica microspheres as mixed-mode stationary phase for liquid chromatographic separation of phospholipids

There is a large and growing demand for the vigorous development of new high performance liquid chromatography stationary phases in order to solve complex phospholipids separation. Herein, phosphonium-based ionic liquid trioctyl(allyl)phosphonium bromide ([P_888Allyl]Br) was first synthesized with trioctylphosphine and allyl bromide. With [P_888Allyl]Br as the polymerizable monomer, polymerized phosphonium ionic liquid functionalized silica microsphere (PIL@SiO₂) was further synthetized via click chemistry reaction. Significantly, based on the inherent amphiphilic nature of the introduced [P_888Allyl]Br, the packed PIL@SiO₂ column displayed hydrophilic/hydrophobic mixed-mode retention mechanisms. The PIL@SiO₂ column can achieve separation of nucleic acid bases and nucleosides, sulfonamides, amides and anilines with excellent selectivity in a shorter separation time. The column efficiency reached 109,700 N/m for 2-iodoacetamide. One of the important characteristics of the PIL@SiO₂ column is that both phospholipid classes and species can be efficiently separated via the same column, outperforming that of the commercial amino column. Furthermore, the application potential of the PIL@SiO₂ column was further verified via separation of phospholipids extracted from soy lecithin. The proposed PIL@SiO₂ column provides a promising candidate for separation of complex phospholipid samples.

The selectivity of a polydimethylsiloxane-based triblock copolymer as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography

A triblock copolymer (PCL-PDMS-PCL) constructed from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) chains was synthesized and used as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC).

Polymeric Ionic Liquids Derived from L-Valine for the Preparation of Highly Selective Silica-Supported Stationary Phases in Gas Chromatography

A series of silica-supported polymeric ionic liquid (PIL)-based stationary phases derived from a vinylic L-valine ionic liquid monomer and divinylbenzene (DVB) as the crosslinking agent have been prepared and studied as gas chromatographic stationary phases. These coated gas chromatographic columns exhibited good thermal stabilities (230-300 °C) and high efficiencies (1700-2700 plates/m), and were characterized using a linear solvation parameter model in order to understand the effects of the amount of DVB on the features of the resulting composite systems. Their retention behavior and separation efficiencies were demonstrated using the Grob test. By tuning the crosslinking degree for the IL-derived stationary phase, the separation selectivity and resolution of different compounds were improved. The different retention behaviors observed for many analytes indicate that these stationary phases may be applicable as new types of GC stationary phases.

A flexible and convenient strategy for synthesis of ionic liquid bonded polysiloxane stationary phases

Ionic liquid bonded polysiloxanes (PILs) are a class of polysiloxanes whose side chains contain ionic liquid (IL) moieties. Considering their excellent selectivity and thermo-stability, PILs have great potentials in the development of polar stationary phases for gas chromatography. In this paper, a novel synthesis strategy for PILs is proposed to diversify PIL stationary phases and also facilitate the study on relationships between stationary phase structure and separation performances. The polysiloxane with imidazole groups at the side chains was synthesized firstly, and then these imidazole groups further reacted with halogenated compounds to produce various IL groups. Upon this, fifteen PIL stationary phases differing in IL content, IL group or combination of different IL groups have been synthesized and used to prepare capillary columns through static coating method. These columns have quite different general polarity indexes (the average value of all Rohrschneider-McReynolds constants in this paper) falling in a broad range from 218 to 717, and most columns have column efficiency values over 3000 plates/m. In addition, IL content, structure of the IL and combination of different IL groups have noticeable influences on interaction features of the stationary phases. After that, the separation performances of these PIL stationary phases were demonstrated by separating various mixed samples of aliphatic esters, dichloro-anilines, alcohols, aromatic amines, substituted alkanes, and so on. In order to reveal the relationship of interaction characteristics and separation performances, a set of indexes of contribution rates (CRs) is proposed. Based on CRs, the separation selectivity of the PIL stationary phases has been discussed in detail. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the separation selectivity not only between PILs and conventional polar stationary phases, but also among different PILs. All of these imply a family of practical PILs with special selectivity could be constructed upon this synthesis strategy.

Ionic liquid syntheses via click chemistry: expeditious routes toward versatile functional materials

The application of click reaction (e.g. CuAAC, thiol–X, oxime formation and nucleophilic ring opening) has recently begun to draw attention for efficient and robust synthesis of new functional ionic liquids, requiring minimal purification.

Recent advances on ionic liquid uses in separation techniques

The molten organic salts with melting point below 100°C, commonly called ionic liquids (ILs) have found numerous uses in separation sciences due to their exceptional properties as non molecular solvents, namely, a negligible vapor pressure, a high thermal stability, and unique solvating properties due to polarity and their ionic character of molten salts. Other properties, such as viscosity, boiling point, water solubility, and electrochemical window, are adjustable playing with which anion is associated with which cation. This review focuses on recent development of the uses of ILs in separation techniques actualizing our 2008 article (same authors, J. Chromatogr. A, 1184 (2008) 6-18) focusing on alkyl methylimidazolium salts. These developments include the use of ILs in nuclear waste reprocessing, highly thermally stable ILs that allowed for the introduction of polar gas chromatography capillary columns able to work at temperature never seen before (passing 300°C), the use of ILs in liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, and the introduction of tailor-made ILs for mass spectrometry detection of trace anions at the few femtogram level. The recently introduced deep eutectic solvents are not exactly ILs, they are related enough so that their properties and uses in countercurrent chromatography are presented.

Determination of piperidinium ionic liquid cations in environmental water samples by solid phase extraction and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography

This paper presents a novel analytical method for the determination of piperidinium ionic liquid cations in environmental water by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and solid-phase extraction technology. The left standing, centrifuged and filtered river water samples were first purified and concentrated through the C18 solid phase extraction column, and eluted with 0.02mol/L hydrochloric acid prepared in methanol and deionized water (80/20, v/v). Then the eluents were analyzed by a hydrophilic column combined with 0.8mmol/L 1-propyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate aqueous solution/acetonitrile (40/60, v/v) as the mobile phase and indirect ultraviolet detection. The detection limits of piperidinium cations were less than 0.4mg/L. The relative standard deviations were less than 0.6%. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of piperidinium cations in Songhua River water samples. Recoveries were 80.0%-98.3%. This research may provide a reference for studying the environmental effect of ionic liquids.