The impetus for the expanding interest in ionic liquids (ILs) is their favorable properties and important applications. Ionic liquid-based surfactants (ILBSs) carry long-chain hydrophobic tails. Two or more molecules of ILBSs can be joined by covalent bonds leading, e.g., to gemini compounds (GILBSs). This review article focuses on aspects of the chemistry and applications of ILBSs and GILBSs, especially in the last ten years. Data on their adsorption at the interface and micelle formation are relevant for the applications of these surfactants. Therefore, we collected data for 152 ILBSs and 11 biamphiphilic compounds. The head ions of ILBSs are usually heterocyclic (imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, etc.). Most of these head-ions are also present in the reported 53 GILBSs. Where possible, we correlate the adsorption/micellar properties of the surfactants with their molecular structures, in particular, the number of carbon atoms present in the hydrocarbon “tail”. The use of ILBSs as templates for the fabrication of mesoporous nanoparticles enables better control of particle porosity and size, hence increasing their usefulness. ILs and ILBSs form thermodynamically stable water/oil and oil/water microemulsions. These were employed as templates for (radical) polymerization reactions, where the monomer is the “oil” component. The formed polymer nanoparticles can be further stabilized against aggregation by using a functionalized ILBS that is co-polymerized with the monomers. In addition to updating the literature on the subject, we hope that this review highlights the versatility and hence the potential applications of these classes of surfactants in several fields, including synthesis, catalysis, polymers, decontamination, and drug delivery.

We report on a distance learning experimental project for chemistry-major students on the synthesis of ethyl dodecanoate (C11CO2Et), a model for biodiesel, considering green chemistry principles. Thus, we employed a recyclable acid catalyst (an ionic liquid) and used chemometrics and microwave heating (MW) to maximize reaction yield and reduce energy consumption. Acid-catalyzed esterification is an equilibrium that can be shifted to products by controlling reaction conditions. Of these, the students selected reaction time (t) and the molar ratio (ethanol/dodecanoic acid; χEtOH/C11CO2H); these were varied using the design of experiment (DOE) statistical method. We demonstrated that the C11CO2Et yield depends more on t than on χEtOH/C11CO2H. Relative to convection heating, the use of MW resulted in a better ester yield and less power consumption. To enhance the participation of the students, we stopped the video presentation of the experiment and asked them how to proceed to the next step (e.g., product separation; catalyst recycling). The students gave group seminars on themes related to green chemistry (nonconventional energy sources, recycling, etc.). This project introduces green chemistry principles in the undergraduate laboratory, while being safe and low-cost, and generates very little waste.

Asphaltenes (Asps) are operationally defined as the toluene-soluble but n-pentane- or n-heptane-insoluble fractions, e.g., of crude oils. Therefore, there is intense interest in determining the concentration of n-heptane required to precipitate Asps from their solutions in particular media (solvents, solvent mixtures, and maltenes). Here, we report on the dependence of Asp dissolution in binary mixtures of n-heptane (solvent 1, S1)/organic solvent (solvent 2, S2) over the entire mole fraction range of S2, χ S2 , and in few selected maltene models (n-heptane + S2 + benzothiazole + n-octyl-1-napthoate). The S2 employed were benzonitrile, cyclohexanone, ethyl benzoate, 1-methylnaphthalene, tetrahydropyran, and toluene. For all S2 and model maltenes, the dependence of wt % dissolved Asp (determined by mass and UV/vis absorbance) on χ S2 was nonlinear. We attribute this nonlinear, i.e., nonideal dissolution behavior to “preferential solvation” of the Asp by a component(s) of the medium (binary solvent mixtures and maltenes). Although the occurrence of “solvent sorting” during Asp dissolution was alluded to, this is the first direct and unambiguous evidence for its occurrence. We used solvatochromism to corroborate our rationale about the origin of the Asp nonideal dissolution behavior. The term solvatochromism refers to the effect of the solvent on the color of solvatochromic probes, substances whose spectra are sensitive to the properties of the liquid medium, e.g., its empirical polarity, E T (probe). Recently, we used (E)-2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-[2-(1-hexylquinolin-1-ium-4-yl)­vinyl]­phenolate, HxQMBu2) to study Asp dissolution in pure solvents and model maltenes. We showed that E T (HxQMBu2) correlates linearly with Hildebrand solubility parameters of pure solvents as well as with lg (wt % dissolved Asps). In the present work, we studied the solvatochromic response of HxQMBu2 in the above-mentioned n-heptane/S2 binary mixtures. Except for toluene/n-heptane mixtures, plots of E T (HxQMBu2) versus χS2 were nonlinear due to probe preferential solvation. We successfully fitted a solvation model to the solvatochromic and Asp dissolution data and extracted the enrichment of the solvation layers in the more polar component(s) of the binary mixture and model maltenes. Our results bear on the assessment of additives employed to stabilize Asps: in the absence of adverse effects of the additive on other properties (e.g., viscosity and water/oil emulsion stability), efficient additives should accumulate in the solvation layer of Asp particles where they displace the nonsolvents, e.g., the saturates.

No abstract

No abstract