Ionic Liquids
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Coordinating ionic liquids - efficient and greener solvents for dissolution and processing of biomass

biomass dissolution
Profit from the dissolving power of ionic liquids for the dissolution of biomass
"There is no other solvent that is capable of dissolving biomass as gently as ionic liquids"


The ability of ILs to directly dissolve biological macromolecules, such as cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, chitin, silk fibroin, wool keratin, etc., has generated intense worldwide academic and industrial interest in a relatively short period of time. Selective to complete dissolution of these biological macromolecules using ILs can now be carried out under unmatched mild conditions, without evaporation of solvent molecules, and the ILs can be easily recycled and reused. Moreover, in general there is no significant decrease in the molecular mass of the regenerated macromolecules and chemical modifications of the dissolved macromolecules can easily be conducted with ILs suitable to the reaction conditions. All these advantages make the dissolution of macromolecules with ILs a desirable and promising process (H.Wang et al. 2014).

Advantages of ionic liquids as solvents

  • Greener alternatives to volatile, environmentally undesirable organic solvents
  • Uncomplicated and safe handling compared to conventional solvents
  • Dissolve a wide range of biopolymers
  • Excellent chemical & thermal stability & non-flammability
  • Can easily be recycled and reused
  • Selective to complete dissolution of biological macromolecules under mild conditions
  • Chemical modification of macromolecules can easily be conducted in suitable IL solution


The first application of ILs in processing biomass was the dissolution of pure cellulose using imidazolium ILs. Since then, studies on the application of ILs in biomass chemistry have made great progress and now many ILs have been found to be able to dissolve biopolymers. A given type of IL might dissolve quite different biopolymers (H.Wang et al.2014).

Benefit from the dissolving power of proionic´s strongly coordinating  1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIM-OAc) (REACH registration number: 01-2120772508-45-0000, up to 10 t/a) or 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (BMIM-OAc) in your biomass application. Additionally, these type of ionic liquids were successfully implemented in various fiber welding techniques.

We have recently broadened our portfolio of dissolving ionic liquids by 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium octanoate (EMIM OOc) with high quality >98%. EMIM Octanoate is liquid at room temperature and stable against hydrolyses in water. EMIM Octanoate is highly soluble in water and DMSO.

proionic's extrHEMP has shown to have to effectively & gently dissolve hemp buds within one hour using one single solvent. extrHEMP is non-toxic and recylclable. Profit from the power of ionic liquids for biomass dissolution and contact our team.

PROFIT FROM proionic's "BIOMASS DISSOLUTION KIT" 550 €* for 6 x 100 g
IL CAS Tm α β π* Comment Lit
Chol-Lys 1361335-94-5 < RT n.a.
n.a.
1.30
1.31 (90°C)
0.67
0.64 (90°C)
Medium H-bond disruptor, strongly basic 1
Chol-OAc 14586-35-7 85 °C

0.68

(90 °C)

1.22 (90°C)  0.76 (90°C) Medium H-bond disruptor, mildly basic 1
EMIM-OAc 143314-17-4 - 20 °C 0.47
0.51 (90°C)
1.14
1.23 (90°C)
1.04
0.91 (90°C)
Strong H-bond disruptor, mildly basic 1,2,3,4
BMIM-OAc 284049-75-8 - 20 °C 0.44  1.09  0.96 Strong H-bond disruptor, mildly basic 2,5
EMIM-OPr 865627-64-1 < RT 0.54  1.09  0.96 Strong H-bond disruptor, mildly basic 5
EMIM-OOc 1154003-55-0 < RT       Strong H-bond disruptor, mildly basic 8

Tm Melting point; α, β, π* Kamlet-Taft solvent parameters (Jessop et al., Green Chem., 2012, 14, 1245). All data shown for room temperature, if not stated otherwise. Literature: [1] Green Chem., 2014, 16, 2546. [2] Russ. J. Gen. Chem. 79, 125–128 (2009. [3] Phys. Che m. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, 20480. [4] Russ. J. Gen. Chem. 80, 501–506 (2010). [5] ChemSusChem (2013), 6(11), 2161-2169. [6] Chem. Commun., 2009, 6297-6299. [7] Journal of Physical Chemistry B (2016), 120(32), 7906-7919. [8] Cellulose, 2021, 28, 3055-3067

Broad spectrum of diverse applications

proionic serves customers from different industry sectors providing tailor-made solutions
01

Green solvents

Benefit from the dissolving power of proionic´s strongly coordinating ionic liquids such as EMIM-OAc or BMIM-OAc
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02

Electrolytes

High-purity & inflammable ionic liquid electrolytes such as EMIM-TFSI & EMIM-BF4
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03

High temperature cooling

Safe cooling of high temperature processes with IL-B2001
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04

Further applications

Lubricants and hydraulic fluids, air conditioning, hydrogen storage & chemical production processes
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