Green solvents gone bananas: Use of ionic liquids for the processing and analysis of biomass

I&EC 244

Richard C. Remsing, rremsing@usip.edu1, Diego A. Fort, dfort@fq.edu.uy2, Richard P. Swatloski, RPSwatloski@525Solutions.com3, Patrick Moyna, pmoyna@fq.edu.uy2, Robin D. Rogers, rdrogers@bama.ua.edu3, and Guillermo Moyna, g.moyna@usip.edu4. (1) Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, 600 South 43rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, (2) Departamento de Quimica Organica, Facultad de Quimica,Universidad de la Republica, Avda. Gral. Flores 2124, 11800. Montevideo, Uruguay, (3) Department of Chemistry and Center for Green Manufacturing, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, (4) West Center for Computational Chemistry and Drug Design and Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, 600 South 43rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Owing to their environmental and chemical characteristics and tunable physicochemical properties, ionic liquids (ILs) have found a plethora of applications in synthetic and analytical chemistry. This talk describes the use of these solvents in the processing and analysis of polysaccharides found in natural and manufactured materials. We first present a series of 13C and 35/37Cl NMR relaxation experiments which demonstrate that N,N'-dialkyl imidazolium chloride ILs dissolve carbohydrates through formation of hydrogen bonds between the solvent Cl- ions and the solute OH groups. The use of one of these compounds, 1-methyl-3-butyl imidazolium chloride ([C4mim]Cl), in the direct dissolution of grains, fruit pulps, textiles, and lignocellulosic materials will then be described, making particular emphasis on the analysis of the resulting samples through high-resolution 13C NMR techniques. The potential industrial uses of these novel and environmentally affable methodologies will be discussed as well.
 

Ionic Liquids: Not Just Solvents Anymore OR Ionic Liquids: Parallel Futures (Sponsored by Green Chemistry and Engineering, Separation Science and Technology and Novel Chemistry with Industrial Applications Sub-Divisions)
1:30 PM-5:45 PM, Tuesday, 28 March 2006 Georgia World Congress Center -- B314, Oral

Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry

The 231st ACS National Meeting, Atlanta, GA, March 26-30, 2006