Liu Q, Bi J, Zhang X. Effect of Water on Phenol Separation from Model Oil with Ionic Liquids Based on COSMO-RS Calculation and Experimental Study.
ACS OMEGA 2021;
6:27368-27378. [PMID:
34693157 PMCID:
PMC8529667 DOI:
10.1021/acsomega.1c04247]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Ionic liquids (ILs) are widely used in the extraction of phenolic compounds from low-temperature coal tar (LTCT). However, both ILs and LTCT contain a certain amount of water. The existence of water may have a remarkable impact on the phenol separation performance of ILs with different structures. In this work, the capacity and selectivity for m-cresol, as well as the solubility of cumene and dodecane in different IL-H2O mixtures, were firstly calculated by the conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) at infinite dilution. The calculation covers ILs with different anionic and anionic structures and different water contents. To explore the effect of water in IL on separation performance, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium acetate ([C2mim][Ac]) was selected as the representative IL, and then the molecular interactions between the [C2mim][Ac]-H2O mixture solvent and solute (including m-cresol, cumene, and dodecane) were analyzed by COSMO-RS. The results indicated that both water and m-cresol could form hydrogen bonds with [C2mim][Ac]. The competition between them leads to decreasing separation performance for m-cresol of the [C2mim][Ac]-H2O mixture with increasing water content. Moreover, through analyses of m-cresol extraction efficiency, distribution coefficient, selectivity, and entrainment of cumene and dodecane, the experimental results confirmed that the presence of water in [C2mim][Ac] had a negative effect on the separation of m-cresol. The viscosity and UV-vis spectra of the [C2mim][Ac]-H2O mixture were also measured. Water in ILs should be removed as much as possible to ensure a better dephenolization effect and avoid phenol containing wastewater.
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