CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials

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Publications

Extensive characterization of choline chloride and its solid–liquid equilibrium with water

Publication . Ferreira, Ana I.M.C. Lobo; Vilas-Boas, Sérgio M.; Silva, Rodrigo M.A.; Martins, Mónia A.R.; Abranches, Dinis O.; Paz, Filipe A. Almeida; Ferreira, Olga; Pinho, Simão; Santos, Luís M.N.B.F.; Coutinho, João A.P.; Soares-Santos, Paula C.

The importance of choline chloride (ChCl) is recognized due to its widespread use in the formulation of deep eutectic solvents. The controlled addition of water in deep eutectic solvents has been proposed to overcome some of the major drawbacks of these solvents, namely their high hygroscopicities and viscosities. Recently, aqueous solutions of ChCl at specific mole ratios have been presented as a novel, low viscous deep eutectic solvent. Nevertheless, these proposals are suggested without any information about the solid–liquid phase diagram of this system or the deviations from the thermodynamic ideality of its precursors. This work contributes significantly to this matter as the phase behavior of pure ChCl and (ChCl + H2 O) binary mixtures was investigated by calorimetric and analytical techniques. The thermal behavior and stability of ChCl were studied by polarized light optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, confirming the existence of a solid–solid transition at 352.2 0.6 K. Additionally, heat capacity measurements of pure ChCl (covering both ChCl solid phases) and aqueous solutions of ChCl (xChCl o 0.4) were performed using a heat-flow differential scanning microcalorimeter or a high- precision heat capacity drop calorimeter, allowing the estimation of a heat capacity change of (ChCl) E 39.3 10 J K 1 mol 1 , between the hypothetical liquid and the observed crystalline phase at 298.15 K. The solid–liquid phase diagram of the ChCl + water mixture was investigated in the whole concentration range by differential scanning calorimetry and the analytical shake-flask method. The phase diagram obtained for the mixture shows an eutectic temperature of 204 K, at a mole fraction of choline chloride close to xChCl = 0.2, and a shift of the solid–solid transition of ChCl–water mixtures of 10 K below the value observed for pure choline chloride, suggesting the appearance of a new crystalline structure of ChCl in the presence of water, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The liquid phase presents significant negative deviations to ideality for water while COSMO-RS predicts a near ideal behaviour for ChCl.

2022Journal article

Open access

Deterpenation of citrus essential oil via extractive distillation using imidazolium-based ionic liquids as entrainers

Publication . Vilas-Boas, Miguel; Batista, Fábio R.M.; Dias, Rafael M.; Coutinho, João A.P.; Ferreira, Olga; Costa, Mariana C.; Pinho, Simão

The deterpenation of citrus essential oils (CEO) is crucial in many industries to promote the stability and preserve the organoleptic properties of the final product, improving considerably the oxygenated fraction purity. Methods: Two imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs), [C4mim][OAc] and [C4mim]Cl, were applied as novel separation agents in a deterpenation process constituted by an extractive distillation column and a flash separator unit, aiming to remove hydrocarbon terpenes from the essential oil. The CEO was modeled as a mixture of the commonly found limonene (monoterpene) and linalool (monoterpenoid). To support the process simulation, isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium measurements were conducted for the binary limonene/linalool and ternary limonene/linalool/IL mixtures at 5 kPa, and the data were successfully correlated with the NRTL model. Significant findings: The simulation results demonstrate that [C4mim]Cl improved the purity of linalool in the final product. Moreover, both [C4mim]Cl and [C4mim][OAc] reduced the required stages in the distillation column to obtain a terpeneless CEO with a certain purity, [C4mim]Cl being the most effective option.

2024Journal article

Open access

Ionic liquids as entrainers for terpenes fractionation and other relevant separation problems

Publication . Vilas-Boas, Sérgio M.; Teixeira, Gabriel; Rosini, Sabrina Barbosa; Martins, Mónia A.R.; Gaschi, Priscilla S.; Coutinho, João A.P.; Ferreira, Olga; Pinho, Simão

This work discusses the potential of two phosphonium-based ionic liquids (ILs), [P6,6,6,14]Cl and [P6,6,6,14][(C8H17)2PO2], and one methylimidazolium-based IL, [C4mim][OAc], as entrainers in the fractionation of terpene mixtures, in the desulfurization and denitrification of fuel oils, and in the separation of aromatics from aliphatic hydrocarbons. To this aim, the activity coefficients at infinite dilution of 45 solutes were obtained by gas-chromatography in the temperature range (333.15–458.15) K. Selectivities and capacities were calculated showing that [P6,6,6,14]Cl is adequate for the fractionation of (−)-menthone/L-(−)-menthol mixture, being also a suitable option for the deterpenation of citrus essential oil, and the removal of thiophene and pyridine from aliphatic hydrocarbons. To complement the experimental measurements COSMO-RS model was tested, demonstrating good potential to screen separation agents and give insights for several important separation problems, including the removal of contaminants from fuels and the isolation, fractionation and purification of terpenes mixtures.

2021Journal article

Open access

Selection and characterization of non-ideal ionic liquids mixtures to be used in CO

Publication . Martins, Mónia A. R.; Sharma, Gyanendra; Pinho, Simão; Gardas, Ramesh L.; Coutinho, João A.P.; Carvalho, Pedro J.

Due to the costs involved, the capture of CO2 in post-combustion is not currently seen as economically viable. Aiming at changing the perception of post-combustion CO2 from a costly and non-profitable process to a valuable commodity and fostering the development of the next-generation of technologies, novel solvents and their mixtures have been investigated. In this work, mixtures of non-volatile ionic liquids were screened by COSMO-RS aiming to find mixtures with positive excess volumes that could present an increased CO2 capture by physical sorption. The most promising mixtures identified by COSMO-RS, [C4C1im][DMP] or [C4C1im][NTf2] þ carboxylate-based protic ILs were characterized through the measurement of their thermophysical properties, namely density and viscosity. Both properties were measured for pure ILs and their binary mixtures at different temperatures and compositions. The temperature dependence of density of pure ILs was described using the Gardas and Coutinho model while viscosity was accurately described using the Vogel Tammann Fulcher equation. The Redlich-Kister equation was used to predict the excess molar volumes and the non-ideality of the mixtures’ viscosity was assessed using the Grunberg and Nissan mixing law. The excess molar volumes for mixtures containing [C4C1im][DMP] show large positive values all over the range of compositions and temperatures, making them good candidates for CO2 capture. To the best of our knowledge, the excess molar volumes obtained in this work were the highest reported so far. COSMO-RS was able to correctly predict the trend of the experimental excess molar volumes for these mixtures. Regarding viscosity, mixtures of [C4C1im] [DMP] with the carboxylate-based protic ILs led to the desired viscosity decrease compared to the pure aprotic IL, and large deviations from ideality were observed. The mixing of ILs is thus an efficient way to fine-tune the properties, in this case decreasing the viscosity while increasing the sorption capacity.

2020Journal article

Open access

Designing type V deep eutectic solvents with antimalarial pharmaceutical ingredients

Publication . Teixeira, Gabriel; Brandão, Paula; Ferreira, Ana I.M.C. Lobo; Abranches, Dinis O.; Santos, L.uís M.N.B.F.; Ferreira, Olga; Coutinho, João A.P.

This work studies the formation of deep eutectic solvents formed by one active pharmaceutical ingredient (quinine, pyrimethamine, or 2-phenylimidazopyridine) and a second component potentially acting as an excipient (betaine, choline chloride, tetramethylammonium chloride, thymol, menthol, gallic acid, vanillin, acetovanillone, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, syringaldehyde, propyl gallate, propylparaben, or butylated hydroxyanisole), aiming to address challenges regarding drug solubility, bioavailability, and permeability. A preliminary screening was carried out using the thermodynamic model COSMO-RS, narrowing down the search to three promising excipients (thymol, propyl gallate, and butylated hydroxyanisole). Nine solid–liquid equilibrium (SLE) phase diagrams were experimentally measured combining the three model drugs with the screened excipients, and using a combination of a visual melting method and differential scanning calorimetry. Negative deviations from thermodynamic ideality were observed in all nine systems. Furthermore, a total of four new cocrystals were found, with powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques being employed to verify their unique diffraction patterns. In the thermodynamic modelling of the SLE diagrams, two COSMO-RS parametrizations (TZVP and TZVPD-FINE) were also applied, though neither consistently delivered a better description over the other.

2024Journal article

Restricted access