Effect of salts on the solubility of ionic liquids in water: experimental and electrolyte Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory

resumo

Due to scarce available experimental data, as well as due to the absence of predictive models, the influence of salts on the solubility of ionic liquids (ILs) in water is still poorly understood. To this end, this work addresses the solubility of the IL 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide ([C(4)C(1)im][NTf2]), at 298.15 K and 0.1 MPa, in aqueous salt solutions (from 0.1 to 1.5 mol kg(-1)). At salt molalities higher than 0.2 mol kg(-1), all salts caused salting-out of [C(4)C(1)im][NTf2] from aqueous solution with their strength decreasing in the following order: Al-2(SO4)(3) > ZnSO4 > K3C6H5O7 > KNaC4H4O6 > K3PO4 > Mg(CH3CO2)(2) > K2HPO4 > MgSO4 > KH2PO4 > KCH3CO2. Some of these salts lead however to the salting-in of [C(4)C(1)im][NTf2] in aqueous medium at salt molalities lower than 0.2 mol kg(-1). To attempt the development of a model able to describe the salt effects, comprising both the salting-in and salting-out phenomena observed, the electrolyte Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (ePC-SAFT) was applied using ion-specific parameters. The gathered experimental data was modelled using ePC-SAFT parameters complemented by fitting a single binary parameter between K+ and the IL-ions to the IL solubility in K3PO4 aqueous solutions. Based on this approach, the description of anion-specific salting-out effects of the remaining potassium salts was found to be in good agreement with experimental data. Remarkably, ePC-SAFT is even able to predict the salting-in effect induced by K2HPO4, based on the single K+/IL-ions binary parameter which was fitted to an exclusively salting-out effect promoted by K3PO4. Finally, ePC-SAFT was applied to predict the influence of other sodium salts on the [C(4)C(1)im][NTf2] solubility in water, with experimental data taken from literature, leading to an excellent description of the liquid-liquid phase behaviour.

palavras-chave

AQUEOUS BIPHASIC SYSTEMS; 2-PHASE SYSTEMS; POLYETHYLENE-GLYCOL; COSMO-RS; MOLECULAR-INTERACTIONS; MUTUAL SOLUBILITIES; INORGANIC SALTS; PHASE-BEHAVIOR; ATPS FORMER; EQUILIBRIA

categoria

Chemistry; Physics

autores

Neves, CMSS; Held, C; Mohammad, S; Schleinitz, M; Coutinho, JAP; Freire, MG

Grupos

G4 - Materiais Renováveis e Economia Circular
G5 - Materiais Biomiméticos, Biológicos e Vivos

Projectos

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UID/CTM/50011/2013)

Igy Technology: A Purication Platform using Ionic-Liquid-Based Aqueous Biphasic Systems (IGYPURTECH)

agradecimentos

The authors acknowledge the collaboration of Leila S. C. Rato and Michael Santos Silva for determining some of the experimental data. This work was developed in the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013), financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. Catarina M. S. S. Neves also acknowledges FCT for the postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/109057/2015. The research leading to reported results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 337753. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the IGFproject 17114N/1 of the DECHEMA e.V. that was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (grant no. 005-1009-0053) based on an enactment of the German Federal Parliament (BMWi). The project was supported within the program