Effect of salts on the solubility of ionic liquids in water: experimental and electrolyte Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory

Rapidly Photocurable Solid-State Poly(ionic liquid) Ionogels For Thermally Robust and Flexible Electrochromic Devices

Formation of ionogels through in situ polymerization can effectively improve electrolyte processability; however, the curing process has been slow and oxygen-sensitive. Considering the low oxygen solubility of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs), in situ polymerized ionogels are designed to realize excellent electrolytes. Herein, two in situ polymerized ionogels (PIL A & PIL B) are formulated, and they can be rapidly photocured within a minute. The ionogels are highly transparent, stretchable, and exhibit excellent physicochemical stability, including thermal, electrochemical, and air stability, allowing them to perform in various conditions. Benefitting from these properties, two high-performance electrochromic devices (ECDs) are assembled, with iron-centered coordination polymer (FeCP) and tungsten oxide (P-WO₃ ) electrochromic materials, achieving high color contrast (45.2% and 56.4%), fast response time (1.5/1.9 and 1.7/6.4 s), and excellent cycling endurance (>90% retention over 3000 cycles). Attributed to the thermal robustness of the ionogels, the ECDs can also be operated over a wide temperature range (-20 to 100 °C). With the use of deformable substrates (e.g., ultrathin ITO glass), curved electrochromic eye protector and flexible electrochromic displays are realized, highlighting their potential use in futuristic wearables.

Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Blood Profiles, and Gut Integrity of Growing Pigs Fed Pickled Fish Residue with Decreased Salt Content

This study investigated the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood profiles and gut integrity of growing pigs, in response to an increase in pickled freshwater fish residue (PFR) intake following a decrease in salt content. Ninety-six crossbred growing pigs [(Landrace × Large White) × Duroc] with a body weight of 23.65 ± 0.24 kg were randomly assigned to one of four treatments (6 pens/treatment, 4 pigs/pen) in a randomized complete block design. The treatments included: a corn-soybean meal based diet without PFR inclusion (CON) or with PFR addition at 5 (PFR5), 10 (PFR10), and 15% (PFR15), respectively. Desalting via soaking and stirring caused a positive reduction in the salt present on the surface of PFR. Over the 42-day feeding period, an increased level of PFR quadratically increased gain:feed ratio such that gain:feed ratio for PFR10 was greater than that for CON (p < 0.05). Pigs fed PFR10 had greater crude protein digestibility, and lower aspartate aminotransferase and crypt depth than those fed the CON diet (p < 0.05). The linear improvements in crude protein and ether extract digestibility, duodenal villus height, and villus:crypt ratio were observed as the PFR content increased (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant effects on average daily feed intake, dry matter and ash digestibility, blood metabolites (total Ca, P, creatinine, and alkaline phosphatase). Altogether, up to 10% PFR can be included in corn-soybean meal diet without impairing protein digestibility and hepatic enzyme alteration. In fact, administering PFR with lower salt content to growing pigs ultimately promotes their growth performance and gut integrity.

Ion chromatography for monitoring [NTf2]- anion contaminants in pure and saline water

Hydrophobic ionic liquids containing bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, [NTf2]-, anions partially dissolve in aqueous phases. The potential ecotoxicity of [NTf2]- means wastewater streams must be closely monitored to avoid environmental release. A new ion chromatography method is presented, which improves on existing techniques and methods by significantly decreasing analysis time and improving chromatographic peak properties. Consequently, the limit of detection is lowered to 5 μM (1.4 ppm) and limit of quantification lowered to 30 μM (8.5 ppm). The method is reproducible and has a high precision for short and medium chain length ionic liquids (RSD = 0.95%); however, microemulsion effects increase measurement errors for long chain ionic liquids (RSD = 2.32%), albeit by a relatively small amount. Hence, the method is a highly accurate analytical method for highly polarizable [NTf2]- anions, and quantification in the presence of high salinity samples, such as seawater, is readily achieved. Importantly, this method is a significant improvement on existing techniques (chromatography, NMR, UV-Vis) for many reasons, making it ideal for environmental monitoring or process design of [NTf2]- ionic liquid-based applications.

Microalgal Protein Extraction From Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E Using Triphasic Partitioning Technique With Sonication

Green microalgae containing various bioactive compounds and macronutrients such as lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins, have attracted much attention from the global community. Microalgae has the potential to be applied in food industries due to its high protein content, rapid growth rate, and ability to survive in harsh conditions. This study presents a simple yet efficient technique of sonication-assisted triphasic partitioning process, also known as ultrasonic-assisted three phase partitioning (UATPP), for the extraction of proteins from Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E. Comparison studies between three phase partitioning (TPP) and UATPP was conducted to investigate the feasibility of the enhanced technique on proteins extraction. Types of salt, ratio of slurry to t-butanol, salt saturation, sonication frequency, power, irradiation time, and duty cycle as well as biomass loading were studied. UATPP was found to be an improved technique compared to TPP. An optimum separation efficiency and yield of 74.59 ± 0.45 and 56.57 ± 3.70% was obtained, respectively, with the optimized conditions: salt saturation (50%), slurry to t-butanol ratio (1:2), sonication power (100%), irradiation time (10 min), frequency (35 kHz), duty cycle (80%) and biomass loading (0.75 wt%). A scaled-up study was performed to validate the reliability of UATPP for protein extraction. The outcome of the study revealed that UATPP is an attractive approach for downstream processing of microalgae.

Binary Mixtures of Ionic Liquids in Aqueous Solution: Towards an Understanding of their Salting-In/Salting-Out Phenomena

The order of the salting-in or salting-out inducing ability of ions on the aqueous solubility of macromolecules in aqueous solutions is known as the Hofmeister series. Taking into account that ionic liquids (ILs) are constituted by ions, they can exert similar effects on the solubility of other ILs in aqueous media. In order to expand the knowledge on the salting-in/-out ability of ILs, experimental studies on the solubility of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonylimide) in water in presence of other IL/salts were conducted at 298.15 K at atmospheric pressure. Both the impact of the anion and cation of the IL were evaluated with the following ILs/salts: 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogensulfate, cholinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide and lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, in a wide composition range. As happens with common salts, both salting-in and salting-out effects exerted by ILs were observed, with a higher impact exerted by the IL anion on the salting-out phenomenon. These data allow to better understand the ILs impact when designing liquid-liquid separation processes.