It is widely believed that a defining characteristic of ionic liquids (or low-temperature molten salts) is that they exert no measurable vapour pressure, and hence cannot be distilled. Here we demonstrate that this is unfounded, and that many ionic liquids can be distilled at low pressure without decomposition. Ionic liquids represent matter solely composed of ions, and so are perceived as non-volatile substances. During the last decade, interest in the field of ionic liquids has burgeoned, producing a wealth of intellectual and technological challenges and opportunities for the production of new chemical and extractive processes, fuel cells and batteries, and new composite materials. Much of this potential is underpinned by their presumed involatility. This characteristic, however, can severely restrict the attainability of high purity levels for ionic liquids (when they contain poorly volatile components) in recycling schemes, as well as excluding their use in gas-phase processes. We anticipate that our demonstration that some selected families of commonly used aprotic ionic liquids can be distilled at 200-300 degrees C and low pressure, with concomitant recovery of significant amounts of pure substance, will permit these currently excluded applications to be realized.

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Quinoline derivatives are known to possess a range of bioactive and medicinal activities, which have been exploited in the design of antibacterial, antifungal and antimalarial compounds. In this study, we report on the microbiological toxicity of a series of 1-alkylquinolinium bromides against a range of clinically relevant microorganisms, in both planktonic and sessile (biofilm) cultures. A comparison of antimicrobial activity against planktonic bacteria and established biofilms is presented. In general, 1-alkylquinolinium ionic liquids possess excellent, broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against microorganisms grown in both the planktonic and sessile, or biofilm, mode of growth. Importantly, these compounds are potent against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, as well as fungi, with a clear dependency on length of the alkyl substituent for activity, with compounds containing twelve and fourteen carbons in the alkyl group exhibiting highest antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity.

Ionic liquids are shown to be good solvents for elemental sulfur, selenium, phosphorus and tellurium, and can be designed to maximise the solubility of these elements. The presence of the [S(3)](*-) radical anion in diluted solutions of sulfur in some ionic liquids has been confirmed, and is the origin of their intense blue colour (cf. lapis lazuli).

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The application of mechanical force to induce the formation and cleavage of covalent bonds is a rapidly developing field within organic chemistry which has particular value in reducing or eliminating solvent usage, enhancing reaction rates and also in enabling the preparation of products which are otherwise inaccessible under solution-phase conditions. Mechanochemistry has also found recent attention in materials chemistry and API formulation during which rearrangement of non-covalent interactions give rise to functional products. However, this has been known to nucleic acids science almost since its inception in the late nineteenth century when Miescher exploited grinding to facilitate disaggregation of DNA from tightly bound proteins through selective denaturation of the latter. Despite the wide application of ball milling to amino acid chemistry, there have been limited reports of mechanochemical transformations involving nucleoside or nucleotide substrates on preparative scales. A survey of these reactions is provided, the majority of which have used a mixer ball mill and display an almost universal requirement for liquid to be present within the grinding vessel. Mechanochemistry of charged nucleotide substrates, in particular, provides considerable benefits both in terms of efficiency (reducing total processing times from weeks to hours) and by minimising exposure to aqueous conditions, access to previously elusive materials. In the absence of large quantities of solvent and heating, side-reactions can be reduced or eliminated. The central contribution of mechanochemistry (and specifically, ball milling) to the isolation of biologically active materials derived from nuclei by grinding will also be outlined. Finally non-covalent associative processes involving nucleic acids and related materials using mechanochemistry will be described: specifically, solid solutions, cocrystals, polymorph transitions, carbon nanotube dissolution and inclusion complex formation.

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