Ionic liquid-based antimicrobial materials for water treatment, air filtration, food packaging and anticorrosion coatings

Efforts to widen the scope of ionic liquids applications across diverse research areas have flourished in the last two decades with developments in understanding and tailoring their physical, chemical, and biological properties. The promising applications of ionic liquids-based materials as antimicrobial systems is due to their ability and flexibility to be tailored in varying sizes, morphologies, and surface charges. Ionic liquids are also considered as greener materials. Common methods for the preparation of ionic liquid-based materials include crosslinking, loading, grafting, and combination of ionic liquids with other polymeric materials. Recent research focuses on the tuning of the biological properties to design novel ionic liquids-based antimicrobial materials. Here, the properties, synthesis and applications of ionic liquids and ionic liquids-based materials are reviewed with focus on antimicrobial activities applied to water treatment, air filtration, food packaging, and anticorrosion.

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.

Directly probing the effect of the solvent on a catalyst electronic environment using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The anion of an ionic liquid can significantly influence the electronic environment of a metal centre, and thus impact upon reaction performance in a model Suzuki cross coupling reaction.

UV-initiated hydrosilylation on hydrogen-terminated silicon (111): rate coefficient increase of two orders of magnitude in the presence of aromatic electron acceptors

UV-initiated (254 nm) hydrosilylation of hexadecene on Si(111)-H has been studied in the presence of various aliphatic and aromatic molecules (additives). Many of these additives cause an enhancement in the pseudo-first-order rate coefficient (k(obs)) of hydrosilylation, some up to 200× faster than observed in neat hexadecene. It is proposed that these additives capture the photoejected electron from the surface, thereby increasing the probability of reaction of the alkene with the surface hole (h(+)), leading to Si-C bond formation. While the ability of these additives to increase k(obs) is related to their reduction potential, aromatic additives are particularly efficient; we suspect this is due to the relatively strong physisorption of the aromatic molecules leading to a favorable geometry for electron transfer. The presence of these additives permits the use of a much lower intensity of UV light (~30 μW/cm(2)), reducing the probability of photodegradation of the monolayer, and maximum coverage can be reached within minutes.

A convenient method to access long-chain and functionalised mixed methylphosphonate esters and their application in the synthesis of ionic liquids

A new method to synthesise long-chain and functionalised methylphosphonate esters and the corresponding ionic liquids is reported. The synthesis comprises the formation of dialkyl methylphosphonate esters in a S(N)2 reaction followed by the use of these esters as alkylating agents to form the corresponding, new alkyl methylphosphonate ILs.

Surface science and model catalysis with ionic liquid-modified materials

Materials making use of thin ionic liquid (IL) films as support-modifying functional layer open up a variety of new possibilities in heterogeneous catalysis, which range from the tailoring of gas-surface interactions to the immobilization of molecularly defined reactive sites. The present report reviews recent progress towards an understanding of "supported ionic liquid phase (SILP)" and "solid catalysts with ionic liquid layer (SCILL)" materials at the microscopic level, using a surface science and model catalysis type of approach. Thin film IL systems can be prepared not only ex-situ, but also in-situ under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions using atomically well-defined surfaces as substrates, for example by physical vapor deposition (PVD). Due to their low vapor pressure, these systems can be studied in UHV using the full spectrum of surface science techniques. We discuss general strategies and considerations of this approach and exemplify the information available from complementary methods, specifically photoelectron spectroscopy and surface vibrational spectroscopy.

Liquid/solid interface of ultrathin ionic liquid films: [C1C1Im][Tf2N] and [C8C1Im][Tf2N] on Au(111)

Ultrathin films of two imidazolium-based ionic liquids (IL), [C(1)C(1)Im][Tf(2)N] (= 1,3-dimethylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl)imide) and [C(8)C(1)Im][Tf(2)N] (= 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl)imide) were prepared on a Au(111) single-crystal surface by physical vapor deposition in ultrahigh vacuum. The adsorption behavior, orientation, and growth were monitored via angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS). Coverage-dependent chemical shifts of the IL-derived core levels indicate that for both ILs the first layer is formed from anions and cations directly in contact with the Au surface in a checkerboard arrangement and that for [C(8)C(1)Im][Tf(2)N] a reorientation of the alkyl chain with increasing coverage is found. For both ILs, geometry models of the first adsorption layer are proposed. For higher coverages, both ILs grow in a layer-by-layer fashion up to thicknesses of at least 9 nm (>10 ML). Moreover, beam damage effects are discussed, which are mainly related to the decomposition of [Tf(2)N](-) anions directly adsorbed at the gold surface.

Towards a molecular understanding of cation-anion interactions--probing the electronic structure of imidazolium ionic liquids by NMR spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical calculations

Ten [C(8)C(1)Im](+) (1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium)-based ionic liquids with anions Cl(-), Br(-), I(-), [NO(3)](-), [BF(4)](-), [TfO](-), [PF(6)](-), [Tf(2)N](-), [Pf(2)N](-), and [FAP](-) (TfO=trifluoromethylsulfonate, Tf(2)N=bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, Pf(2)N=bis(pentafluoroethylsulfonyl)imide, FAP=tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate) and two [C(8)C(1)C(1)Im](+) (1,2-dimethyl-3-octylimidazolium)-based ionic liquids with anions Br(-) and [Tf(2)N](-) were investigated by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), NMR spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. While (1)H NMR spectroscopy is found to probe very specifically the strongest hydrogen-bond interaction between the hydrogen attached to the C(2) position and the anion, a comparative XPS study provides first direct experimental evidence for cation-anion charge-transfer phenomena in ionic liquids as a function of the ionic liquid's anion. These charge-transfer effects are found to be surprisingly similar for [C(8)C(1)Im](+) and [C(8)C(1)C(1)Im](+) salts of the same anion, which in combination with theoretical calculations leads to the conclusion that hydrogen bonding and charge transfer occur independently from each other, but are both more pronounced for small and more strongly coordinating anions, and are greatly reduced in the case of large and weakly coordinating anions.

Influence of different anions on the surface composition of ionic liquids studied using ARXPS

Angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to study the influence of different types of anions on the surface composition of ionic liquids (ILs). We have investigated nine ILs with the same cation, 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium [C(8)C(1)Im](+), but very different anions. In all cases, an enrichment of the cation alkyl chains is found at the expense of the polar cation head groups and the anions in the first molecular layer. This enhancement effect decreases with increasing size of the anion, which means it is most pronounced for the smallest anions and least pronounced for the largest anions. A simple model is proposed to explain the experimental observations.