Ionic Liquids Make Good on Promise
by Tim McGee, Helena, MT, USA on 12. 7.06
We have long touted the potential of ionic liquids to create more sustainable manufacturing processes. Maaike Kroon of Delft University of Technology has spent her short PhD career creating a process for making drugs that is faster, cheaper, requires 75 percent less energy, produces no chemical waste, and does not use harmful solvents- not bad for 2 years of work from a 25 year old. Expect to see more green chemical wizardry from this young scientist in the future.
"I like to see new scientific discoveries actually being applied. This is currently an exciting challenge in nanotechnology."
Her idea combines the positives of both ionic liquids and supercritical carbon dioxide. The reaction components are dissolved in the ionic liquid, which is then mixed with supercritical carbon dioxide. This process promotes all of the dissolved components to mix rapidly, and form the desired product without any reactions going astray and creating side products (an important aspect for efficiencies and purity of compounds like drugs). This is only the beginning for the useful combination of ionic salts and supercritical carbon dioxide. There are many more materials that could benefit from this sustainable manufacturing technique.:: Innovations Report
I use to work with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide all the time. It is very green, and is fairly new to chemical engineering.
What do they mean by "ionic salts"? ALL salts ionic. If you don't believe me, look it up in any chemistry text, or in the dictionary or encyclopedia. There is no such thing as a non-ionic salt.r
______________________
A. Note- ah, good point that should be ionic liquid, it is still a salt- just the stress should be that it is in a fluid state at room temp-
What do they mean by "ionic salts"? ALL salts are ionic. If you don't believe me, look it up in any chemistry text, or in the dictionary or encyclopedia. There is no such thing as a non-ionic salt.