Deep eutectic solvent-water mixtures

Salt forms homogeneous solutions with water; most studies to date have assumed that deep eutectic solvents (DES) and water form similar homogeneous systems. Several studies have used quantum mechanical and molecular dynamic simulations to prove that this is indeed the case. Study of physical properties of ionic liquid-water/ systems have revealed some anomalous observations without considering the fact that there may be micro- or nano-heterogeneities with in these systems. The key aim of this project is to demonstrate the heterogeneity of DES-water mixtures by careful measurement of physical properties such as viscosity, conductivity, surface tension and density. The first stage of the study involved the investigation of the above physical properties for pure DESs and DESs mixed with different amounts water to investigate if these were homogeneous or heterogeneous in nature. Analysis of these data showed some characteristics of heterogeneity, the extent of which depends on the number of hydrogen bond donors in the pure DES. Dynamic light scattering was used to determine the extent of the heterogeneity in the three DESs under investigation, namely Ethaline, Glyceline and Reline. Pulsed Field Gradient NMR (PFG-NMR) and electrochemical techniques have been used to study diffusion coefficients in DES-water mixtures. The results of PFG-NMR showed that the behaviour of DES-water mixtures was non-Stokesian, hence DES-water mixtures have water-dominant and some ion-dominant domains. Electrochemical studies also showed the same trends due to the electroactive species partitioning between the different phases. It is thought that Reline-water mixtures are more heterogeneous than the corresponding Ethaline and Glyceline systems. Electroplating in DES-water mixtures has previously been shown to improve the quality of deposited films. The electrodeposition of copper from Ethaline was studied as a function of water content. It was found that water affected the speciation of copper in solution.