A stricter definition of a deep eutectic solvent (DES) is urgent, so that it may become a sound basis for further developments in this field. This communication aims at contributing to deepening the understanding of eutectic and deep eutectic mixtures concerning their definition, thermodynamic nature and modelling. The glut of literature on DES applications should be followed by a similar effort to address the fundamental questions on their nature. This hopefully would contribute to correct some widespread misconceptions, and help to establish a stringent definition of what a DES is. DES are eutectic mixtures for which the eutectic point temperature should be lower to that of an ideal liquid mixture. To identify and characterize them, their phase diagrams should be known, in order to compare the real temperature depression to that predicted if ideality is assumed, and to define composition ranges for which they are in the liquid state at operating temperatures. It is also shown that hydrogen bonding between the DES components should not be used to define or characterize a DES, since this would describe many ideal mixtures. The future of deep eutectic solvents is quite promising, and we expect that this work will contribute to the efficient design and selection of the best DES for a given application, and to model properties and phase equilibria without which the process design is impractical.

An abnormal strong interaction was identified, which was found to be the key to prepare non-ionic DES, that may be classified as type V.

Recently, some works claim that hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents could be prepared based on menthol and monocarboxylic acids. Despite of some promising potential applications, these systems were poorly understood, and this work addresses this issue. Here, the characterization of eutectic solvents composed of the terpenes thymol or l­(−)-menthol and monocarboxylic acids is studied aiming the design of these solvents. Their solid–liquid phase diagrams were measured by differential scanning calorimetry in the whole composition range, showing that a broader composition range, and not only fixed stoichiometric proportions, can be used as solvents at low temperatures. Additionally, solvent densities and viscosities close to the eutectic compositions were measured, showing low viscosity and lower density than water. The solvatochromic parameters at the eutectic composition were also investigated aiming at better understanding their polarity. The high acidity is mainly provided by the presence of thymol in the mixture, while l­(−)-menthol plays the major role on the hydrogen-bond basicity. The measured mutual solubilities with water attest to the hydrophobic character of the mixtures investigated. The experimental solid–liquid phase diagrams were described using the PC-SAFT equation of state that is shown to accurately describe the experimental data and quantify the small deviations from ideality.

a b s t r a c tIn this study the solid-liquid equilibria (SLE) of 15 binary mixtures composed of one of three different symmetrical quaternary ammonium chlorides and one of five different fatty acids were measured. The experimental data obtained showed extreme negative deviations to ideality causing large meltingtemperature depressions (up to 300 K) that are characteristic for deep eutectic systems. The experimental data revealed that cross-interactions between quaternary ammonium salt and fatty acid increase with increasing alkyl chain length of the quaternary ammonium chloride and with increasing chain length of the carboxylic acid. The pronounced decrease of melting temperatures in these deep eutectic systems is mainly caused by strong hydrogen-bonding interactions, and thermodynamic modeling required an approach that takes hydrogen bonding into account. Thus, the measured phase diagrams were modeled with perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory based on the classical molecular homonuclear approach. The model showed very good agreement with the experimental data using a semi-predictive modeling approach, in which binary interaction parameters between quaternary ammonium chloride and carboxylic acid correlated with chain length of the components. This supports the experimental findings on the phase behavior and interactions present in these systems and it allows estimating eutectic points of such highly non-ideal mixtures.

a b s t r a c tThe temperature and enthalpy of fusion of choline chloride -[Ch]Cl-are not directly measurable since this compound decomposes upon melting. Yet, given the wide use of this compound in the preparation of deep eutectic solvents (DES), its thermophysical fusion properties are very important for a better understanding of these mixtures and the thermodynamic description of their solid-liquid phase diagrams. In this work, the fusion properties of choline chloride were estimated using the solubility curves of choline chloride in ten different ionic compounds, forming simple binary eutectic mixtures with quasiideal liquid phases. Experimental solid-liquid equilibria data for these systems -[Ch]Cl þ ionic compounds-were measured, and the ideality of the systems assessed through the quantification of the activity coefficients and their comparison in each pair of binary solutions. The values estimated for the fusion properties of choline chloride are T fus, [Ch]Cl ¼ 597 ± 7 K and D fus H [Ch]Cl ¼ 4300 ± 600 J mol À1 . These were additionally checked by thermodynamic consistency tests and by the prediction of the solid-liquid curves with COSMO-RS model. The results obtained with both procedures allow us to guarantee the usefulness and robustness of the estimated data.

The solid−liquid equilibria phase diagrams of eight eutectic systems formed by choline chloride and fatty acids, or fatty alcohols, were measured to characterize the nonideality of the liquid phase of these systems, commonly reported in the literature as examples of type III deep eutectic solvents (DESs), and to evaluate the best modeling approaches to their description. Most of these systems are shown to present only slight deviations from ideal behavior, resulting from a fine balance of the hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl/carboxylic groups with the chloride anion and the interactions present in the pure compounds. The phase diagrams measured were modeled with an associative equation of state (EoS) and a g E model. As an EoS, the perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) was used, and this model was able to accurately describe the experimental data and to provide reliable estimates of the eutectic points using just a single binary temperature-dependent interaction parameter that often correlates with the acid/alcohol chain length. The performance of PC-SAFT was further compared with the g E model, a non-random two-liquid model (NRTL), and was found to provide a better description of the experimental data, especially for the more nonideal systems. Ultimately, the data gathered, and the molecular modeling, allowed the discussion of the behavior of fatty acids or fatty alcohols as hydrogen bond donors in choline chloride-based DESs.

Inspired by the lack of characterization of natural eutectic and deep eutectic (DES) systems, we studied the solid-liquid equilibria (SLE) of binary and ternary mixtures involving choline chloride and sugars. The densities, viscosities and solvatochromic parameters for the binary systems containing choline chloride, [Ch]Cl, were measured at the eutectic composition, and the water impact on these properties was also investigated in order to address the tailoring of their properties using water. Mixtures of sugars are shown to present an ideal behavior, while their binary mixtures with choline chloride present negative deviations to the ideality, particularly in the sugar solubility curve. Aiming to develop a predictive model to design new sugar based DES, the [Ch]Cl + sugars phase diagrams were used to tune the COnductor-like Screening MOdel for Real Solvents (COSMO-RS) parameters, which was after applied in the estimation of the eutectic points of new ternary DES. The predictions quality was checked experimentally, proving that COSMO-RS can be a useful tool for the design of deep eutectic solvents.

a Sustainable hydrophobic eutectic solvents, composed of low-priced and biodegradable terpenes and fatty acids, were used for the extraction and separation of Cu(II) from other transition metals in mildly acidic solutions. Multiple parameters were evaluated for metal extraction and the hydrophobic eutectic solvent was successfully recovered and reused.Metals represent an inherent source of both economic value and toxicity, with their consumption projected to increase in line with global economic standards. Furthermore, the starting compounds are biodegradable and approved for human consumption by various food and drug agencies, turning the resulting HES of interest for a wide range of industries. In this work, sustainable HES based on menthol or its aromatic counterpart thymol combined with long chain carboxylic acids (C n H (2n+1) OOH; n = 8, 10,12,14, 16, 18) (Fig. S1 in the ESI †), are evaluated for the extraction of Cu(II) and its separation from other transition metals, namely Co(II) and Ni(II). The solid-liquid phase diagrams of these HES were previously reported by us along with their physico-chemical properties at compositions close to the eutectic.10 These are summarised in