Evaluation of the Capability of Ionic Liquid-Amino Acid Aqueous Systems for the Formation of Aqueous Biphasic Systems and Their Applications in Extraction

To obtain further experimental evidence for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for the soluting-out effect phenomena in ternary systems composed of an ionic liquid (IL), amino acid, and water, systematic studies on the vapor-liquid, liquid- liquid, and solid-liquid equilibrium behavior of aqueous solutions of several ILs were carried out in the presence of a range of amino acids. Water activities for binary and ternary aqueous solutions containing 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C(4)mim]Cl, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C(6)mim]Cl, 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium trifluorome-thanesulfonate, [C(4)mim] [CF3SO3], (L)-Ser, Gly, Ala, and (L) -Pro were measured using both vapor pressure osmometry and isopiestic methods. All of the ternary IL + amino acid + water systems show negative deviations from semi-ideal behavior and therefore soluting-out effects have been observed in these systems. In the case of the [C(4)mim] [CF3SO3] + amino acids aqueous systems, the IL is soluted-out by the amino acids and the soluting-out effect appears by aqueous biphasic system formation. For these systems, the phase diagram and partition coefficient of caffeine were measured at 298.15 K. However, for the [C(4)mim]Cl and [C(6)mim]Cl containing systems, the amino acids are soluted-out by the ILs and the soluting-out effect appears by precipitation of the amino acids from the solution, and the solubilities of the amino acids in the aqueous solutions decrease in the presence of [C(4)mim]Cl and [C(6)mim]Cl.