“…From these published results, ILs have been revealed to have the strong ability of interacting with organic molecules through various mechanisms (e.g., π−π, dispersion, ionic exchange, hydrogen bonding). ,− Moreover, these interactions can be finely adjusted by the change of IL’s cation or anion task-specifically, thus often bringing on elevated separation efficiency as compared to the traditional solvents . For example, several compounds with a hydrogen-bond donor group, such as phenols and other weak-acidic compounds, were separated from water solution with a high efficiency by using appropriate ILs as extractants. , Therefore, because the tocopherol homologues have different hydrogen-bond acidities that stem from their structural differences, it is reasonable to speculate that they are likely to be separated with each other effectively by some specific kinds of ILs via hydrogen-bonding interactions mainly. In the present work, we then investigated the application of ILs as extractants in the selective separation of tocopherol homologues from their mixtures for the first time.…”