Epoxidation of Soybean Oil Catalyzed by Deep Eutectic Solvents Based on the Choline Chloride–Carboxylic Acid Bifunctional Catalytic System

Development of Halloysite Nanotube-Infused Thermoset Soybean Bio-Resin for Advanced Medical Packaging

The development of eco-friendly, mechanically stable, and biocompatible materials for medical packaging has gained significant attention in recent years. Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) have emerged as a promising nanomaterial due to their unique tubular structure, high aspect ratio, and biocompatibility. We aim to develop a novel soybean oil-based thermoset bio-resin incorporating HNTs and to characterize its physical and functional properties for medical packaging. Soybean oil was epoxidized using an eco-friendly method and used as a precursor for preparing the thermoset resin (ESOR). Different amounts of HNTs (0.25, 0.50, and 1.0 wt.%) were used to prepare the ESOR/HNTs blends. Various characteristics such as transparency, tensile strength, thermal resistance, and water absorption were investigated. While incorporating HNTs improved the tensile strength and thermal properties of the ESOR, it noticeably reduced its transparency at the 1.0 wt.% level. Therefore, HNTs were modified using sodium hydroxide and (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) and ESOR/HNTs blends were made using 1.0 wt.% of modified HNTs. It was shown that modifying HNTs using NaOH improved the transparency and mechanical properties of prepared blends compared to those with the same amount of unmodified HNTs. However, modifying using (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) decreased the transparency but improved the water absorption of prepared resins. This study provides valuable insights into the design of HNT-based ESOR blends as a sustainable material for medical packaging, contributing to the advancement of eco-friendly packaging solutions in the healthcare industry.

Natural deep eutectic solvents for Ultrasonic-Assisted extraction of nutritious date Sugar: Molecular Screening, Experimental, and prediction

The aim of this study is to develop an environmentally friendly and effective method for the extraction of nutritious date sugar using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (USAE). The careful design of a suitable NADES-USAE system was systematically supported by COSMO-RS screening, response surface method (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN). Initially, 26 natural hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) were carefully screened for sugar affinity using COSMO-RS. The best performing HBDs were then used for the synthesis of 5 NADES using choline chloride (ChCl) as HBA. Among the synthesized NADES, the mixture of ChCl, citric acid (CA) and water (1:1:1 with 20 wt% water) resulted in the highest sugar yield of 78.30 ± 3.91 g/100 g, which is superior to conventional solvents such as water (29.92 ± 1.50 g/100 g). Further enhancements using RSM and ANN led to an even higher sugar recovery of 87.81 ± 2.61 g/100 g, at conditions of 30 °C, 45 min, and a solvent to DFP ratio of 40 mL/g. The method NADES-USAE was then compared with conventional hot water extraction (CHWE) (61.36 ± 3.06) and showed 43.1% higher sugar yield. The developed process not only improves the recovery of the nutritious date sugar but also preserves the heat-sensitive bioactive compounds in dates, making it an attractive alternative to CHWE for industrial utilization. Overall, this study shows a promising approach for the extraction of nutritive sugars from dates using environmentally friendly solvents and advanced technology. It also highlights the potential of this approach for valorizing underutilized fruits and preserving their bioactive compounds.

Citric acid-based deep eutectic solvent (CA-DES) as a new soil detergent for the removal of cadmium from coking sites

In order to solve the problem of soil pollution caused by excess heavy metals, cadmium (Cd), a novel soil-washing agent organic chelating acid-based deep eutectic solvent (OCA-DES), was investigated for the removal of Cd from the contaminated soil of coking plant. Four kinds of OCA-DES were prepared by mixing choline chloride (Ch-Cl) with four organic chelating acids (citric acid, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, and malic acid), respectively, to compare their washing efficiency of Cd from soil. The effects of washing operation conditions on the Cd removal efficiency were investigated. Side effects of citric acid-based deep eutectic solvent (CA-DES) on soil were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The results showed that CA-DES had the best Cd removal efficiency and could reach as high as 93.75%, under ideal conditions. CA-DES mainly washed extractable and reducible Cd. The CA-DES washing process has less side effects on soil and hardly eroded the soil or changed the mineral structure of the soil. The main roles of CA-DES washing Cd include (1) hydrogen bonds capturing Cd; (2) the carboxyl group(-COOH) forming soluble chelate with Cd; and (3) releasing H⁺ ions in exchange for Cd. This study demonstrates that CA-DES, a novel soil-washing agent, has excellent removal of cadmium from soil and is environment-friendly.

Deep Eutectic Solvents as Catalysts for Upgrading Biomass

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as promising green solvents, due to their versatility and properties such as high biodegradability, inexpensiveness, ease of preparation and negligible vapor pressure. Thus, DESs have been used as sustainable media and green catalysts in many chemical processes. On the other hand, lignocellulosic biomass as an abundant source of renewable carbon has received ample interest for the production of biobased chemicals. In this review, the state of the art of the catalytic use of DESs in upgrading the biomass-related substances towards biofuels and value-added chemicals is presented, and the gap in the knowledge is indicated to direct the future research.

Deep eutectic solvent for an expeditious sono-synthesis of novel series of bis-quinazolin-4-one derivatives as potential anti-cancer agents

To produce a new category of anti-cancer compounds, a facile and environmentally sustainable method for preparing diversified bis-quinazolinones was demonstrated using recyclable deep eutectic solvent (DES) under ultrasonic irradiation. The reactions were performed smoothly with a wide scope of substrates affording the desired derivatives in good-to-excellent yields under an atom-economical pathway. Particularly, halogen substituents that are amenable for further synthetic elaborations are well tolerated. Furthermore, the 'greenness' of the protocol was assessed within the scope of several green metrics and found to display an excellent score in the specified parameters. Cytotoxic activity of all novel bis-quinazolinones was investigated utilizing two cancer cell lines: breast (MCF-7) and lung (A549) cell lines and their IC50 values were determined. Most of the prepared derivatives displayed fascinating inhibitory activity with IC50 values in a low micromolar range. Remarkably, the derivative 7e [3,3'-(sulfonylbis(4,1-phenylene))bis(2-methyl-6-nitroquinazolin-4(3H)-one)] showed superior potency against MCF-7 and A549 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 1.26 µM and 2.75 µM, respectively. Moreover, this derivative was found to have low toxicity to the normal breast cell line (MCF-10A) and could serve as a promising lead candidate for further development.