We report the synthesis and characterization of amino acid ester based chiral ionic liquids, derived from L-and D-alanine tert butyl ester chloride. The synthesis was accomplished via an anion metathesis reaction between commercially available L-and D-alanine tert butyl ester chloride using a variety of counterions such as lithium bis (trifluoromethane) sulfonimide, silver nitrate, silver lactate, and silver tetrafluoroborate. Both enantiomeric forms were obtained as confirmed by bands of opposite sign in the circular dichroism spectra. The L-and D-alanine tert butyl ester bis (trifluoromethane) sulfonimide were obtained as liquids at room temperature and intriguingly exhibited the highest thermal stability (up to 263°C). In addition, the ionic liquids demonstrated enantiomeric recognition ability as evidenced by splitting of racemic Mosher's sodium salt signal using a liquid state 19 F nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and fluorescence spectroscopy. The L-and D-alanine tert butyl ester chloride resulted in solid salts with nitrate, lactate, and tetrafluoroborate anions. This illustrates the previously observed tunability of ionic liquid synthesis, resulting in ionic liquids of varying properties as a function of varying the anion.

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Tough and biocompatible nanocomposite films: A new type of bioinspired ultrastrong, highly biocompatible, and bioactive konjac glucomannan (KGM)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite film is fabricated on a large scale by a simple solution-casting method. Such KGM-GO composite films exhibit much enhanced mechanical properties under the strong hydrogen-bonding interactions, showing great potential in the fields of tissue engineering and food package.