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Developing and characterizing green solvents with low toxicity and cost is one of the most important issues in chemistry. Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs), in this regard, have shown tremendous promise. Compared to popular organic solvents, DESs possess negligible VOCs and are non-flammable. Compared to ionic liquids, which share many characteristics but are ionic compounds and not ionic mixtures, DESs are cheaper to make, much less toxic and mostly biodegradable. An estimate of the polarity associated with DESs is essential if they are to be used as green alternatives to common organic solvents in industries and academia. As no one physical parameter can satisfactorily represent solute-solvent interactions within a medium, polarity of DESs is assessed through solvatochromic optical spectroscopic responses of several UV-vis absorbance and molecular fluorescence probes. Information on the local microenvironment (i.e., the cybotactic region) that surrounds several solvatochromic probes [betaine dye, pyrene, pyrene-1-carboxaldehyde, 1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonate (ANS), p-toluidinyl-6-naphthalene sulfonate (TNS), 6-propionyl-2-(dimethylaminonaphthalene) (PRODAN), coumarin-153, and Nile Red] for four common and popular DESs formed from choline chloride combined with 1,2-ethanediol, glycerol, urea, and malonic acid, respectively, in 1 : 2 molar ratios termed ethaline, glyceline, reline, and maline is obtained and used to assess the effective polarity afforded by each of these DESs. The four DESs as indicated by these probe responses are found to be fairly dipolar in nature. Absorbance probe betaine dye and fluorescence probes ANS, TNS, PRODAN, coumarin-153, and Nile Red, whose solvatochromic responses are based on photoinduced charge-transfer, imply ethaline and glyceline, DESs formed using alcohol-based H-bond donors, to be relatively more dipolar in nature as compared to reline and maline. The pyrene polarity scale, which is based on polarity-induced changes in vibronic bands, indicates reline, the DES composed of urea as the hydrogen bond donor, to be significantly more dipolar than the other three DESs. Response of pyrene-1-carboxaldehyde, a polarity probe based on inversion of n-π* and π-π* states, hints at maline to be the most dipolar of the four DESs. The molecular structure of the H-bond donor in a DES clearly controls the dipolarity afforded by the DES. H-bonding and other specific solute-solvent interactions are found to play an important role in solvatochromic probe behavior for the four DESs. The cybotactic region of a probe dissolved in a DES affords information on the polarity of the DES towards solutes of similar nature and functionality.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have shown tremendous promise as green solvents with low toxicity and cost. Understanding molecular aggregation processes within DESs will not only enhance the application potential of these solvents but also help alleviate some of the limitations associated with them. Among DESs, those comprising choline chloride and appropriate hydrogen-bond donors are inexpensive and easy to prepare. On the basis of fluorescence probe, electrical conductivity, and surface tension experiments, we present the first clear lines of evidence for self-aggregation of an anionic surfactant within a DES containing a small fraction of water. Namely, well-defined assemblies of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) apparently form in the archetype DES Reline comprising a 1:2 molar mixture of choline chloride and urea. Significant enhancement in the solubility of organic solvents that are otherwise not miscible in choline chloride-based DESs is achieved within Reline in the presence of SDS. The remarkably improved solubility of cyclohexane within SDS-added Reline is attributed to the presence of spontaneously formed cyclohexane-in-Reline microemulsions by SDS under ambient conditions. Surface tension, dynamic light scattering (DLS), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), density, and dynamic viscosity measurements along with responses from the fluorescence dipolarity and microfluidity probes of pyrene and 1,3-bis(1-pyrenyl)propane are employed to characterize these aggregates. Such water-free oil-in-DES microemulsions are appropriately sized to be considered as a new type of nanoreactor.

Physicochemical properties of aqueous micellar solutions may change in the presence of ionic liquids (ILs). Micelles help to increase the aqueous solubility of ILs. The average size of the micellar aggregates within aqueous sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) is observed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to increase in a sudden and drastic fashion as the IL 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([bmim][PF(6)]) is added. Similar addition of [bmim][PF(6)] to aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) results in only a slow gradual increase in average aggregate size. While addition of the IL [bmim][BF(4)] also gives rise to sudden aggregate size enhancement within aqueous SDBS, the IL 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([emim][BF(4)]), and inorganic salts NaPF(6) and NaBF(4), only gradually increase the assembly size upon their addition. Bulk dynamic viscosity, microviscosity, dipolarity (indicated by the fluorescent reporter pyrene), zeta potential, and electrical conductance measurements were taken to gain insight into this unusual size enhancement. It is proposed that bmim(+) cations of the IL undergo Coulombic attractive interactions with anionic headgroups at the micellar surface at all [bmim][PF(6)] concentrations in aqueous SDS; in aqueous SDBS, beyond a critical IL concentration, bmim(+) becomes involved in cation-π interaction with the phenyl moiety of SDBS within micellar aggregates with the butyl group aligned along the alkyl chain of the surfactant. This relocation of bmim(+) results in an unprecedented size increase in micellar aggregates. Aromaticity of the IL cation alongside the presence of sufficiently aliphatic (butyl or longer) alkyl chains on the IL appear to be essential for this dramatic critical expansion in self-assembly dimensions within aqueous SDBS.

Aqueous mixtures of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) of different compositions offer widely varying physicochemical properties that may support porphyrin aggregation. Aggregation behavior of a common water-soluble porphyrin, meso-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TPPS), is investigated within aqueous PEG mixtures constituted of PEGs of average molecular weights 200 (PEG200), 400 (PEG400), 600 (PEG600), and 1000 (PEG1000) using UV-vis molecular absorbance, steady-state fluorescence, and resonance light scattering techniques. No aggregation of TPPS is observed in neat PEGs; addition of 10 wt % water to PEG at pH 1.0 is found to trigger TPPS into significant J-aggregation. The J-aggregation is observed to be most efficient within an aqueous mixture of 90 wt % PEG1000 at pH 1.0. The effect of ionic liquids, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([bmim][PF(6)]) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([bmim][BF(4)]), as additives on the J-aggregation efficiency of TPPS within aqueous mixtures of PEG400 at pH 1.0 is investigated and compared with the effect of salts NaCl, NaPF(6), and NaBF(4) as additives on the J-aggregation of TPPS under the same conditions. In an aqueous mixture of 10 wt % PEG400 at pH 1.0, ionic liquids are observed to increase the J-aggregation efficiency more than the salts at lower concentrations. The efficiency of J-aggregation decreases upon further addition of [bmim][BF(4)] due to reduced dissociation of this ionic liquid in the mixture. While the three salts show limited solubility, the two ionic liquids are completely miscible in a 90 wt % PEG400 mixture in water at pH 1.0. The J-aggregation efficiency of TPPS increases rapidly and reaches a maximum before decreasing gradually as more and more ionic liquid is added to the mixture. The results draw attention to the unique dual role of ionic liquids as additives in affecting the J-aggregation of TPPS within aqueous mixtures of PEG as well as to their proficiency over common salts in J-aggregation.

The ring closing metathesis within an ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([bmim][PF(6)]), a 'green' solvent tetraethylene glycol (TEG), and their equimolar mixture is investigated through the intramolecular excimer formation of 6-(1-pyrenyl)hexyl-11-(1-pyrenyl)undecanoate [1]. The excimer formation efficiency correlates directly with the inverse of the bulk viscosity of the systems. A simplistic double exponential decay model based on Birk's scheme is enough to fit the excited state intensity decay of 1 in these liquids. This behavior is in stark contrast to that reported in organic solvents and in scCO(2), where three exponentials are required to fit the fluorescence decay. The activation energies of the excimer formation (E(a)), viscous flow (E(a,η(bulk))), and microviscosity (E(a,η(μ))) were estimated from the temperature dependence. E(a) and E(a,η(μ)) are significantly higher for the equimolar mixture as compared to that for [bmim][PF(6)] or TEG, whereas E(a,η(bulk)) is close to the average. This highlights the important outcome that the cyclization dynamics scales with the microviscosity rather than the bulk viscosity of the systems investigated.

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