Deep Eutectic Solvents and Ionic Liquids for Extraction, Coatings and Separation
This community develops and applies deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids as functional media for chemical processing, focusing on extracting bioactive compounds, depositing metal coatings, and separating elements.
The work centers on the synthesis and characterization of choline chloride-based mixtures, often combined with acids like acetic or lactic acid, or glycols like ethylene glycol. These solvents are applied in three primary areas: extracting bioactive molecules from plant biomass and food waste, serving as electrolytes for electroless nickel and copper deposition to create corrosion-resistant composite coatings, and facilitating the separation of metals such as nickel and cobalt. The research also includes fundamental studies on phase equilibria, hydrogen bonding, and molecular dynamics to understand the physical properties of these liquid mixtures.
The largest share of the community's output is found in nickel research, accounting for 2.4% of all nickel research, and 2,326 papers here. Copper and chlorine also represent significant portions of the tracked literature, with shares of 1.0% and 2.4% respectively.
The community comprises 16,813 papers, publishing most frequently in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, and Transactions of the IMF.
Recent work continues to focus on using these solvents for biomass pretreatment to enhance bioethanol production, extracting polysaccharides and bioactive compounds like chlorogenic acid, and developing new methods for separating nickel and cobalt via ion exchange.