A series of new hydrophobic and protic alkylammonium ionic liquids with bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide or bis(perfluoroethylsulfonyl)imide as conjugated anions was synthesized in a one-pot reaction with a high yield. In essence our synthesis method involves the combination of neutralization and metathesis reactions. Some of these hydrophobic and protic ionic liquids were liquids at room temperature and therefore investigated as new extraction media for separation of Sr2+ and Cs+ from aqueous solutions. An excellent extraction efficiency was found for some of these ionic liquids using dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 and calix[4]arene-bis(tert-octylbenzo-crown-6) as extractants. The observed enhancement in the extraction efficiency can be attributed to the greater hydrophilicity of the cations of the protic ionic liquids. The application of the protic ionic liquids as new solvent systems for solvent extraction opens up a new avenue in searching for simple and efficient ionic liquids for tailored separation processes.
The high-temperature syntheses of the low-valent halogenides P2I4, Te2Br, a-Te4I4, Te4(Al2Cl7)2, Te4(Bi6Cl20), Te8(Bi4Cl14), Bi8(AlCl4)2, Bi6Cl7, and Bi6Br7, as well as of WSCl4 and WOCl4 have been replaced by resource-efficient low-temperature syntheses in room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). The simple one-pot syntheses generally do not require elaborate equipment such as two zone furnaces or evacuated silica ampoules. Compared to the published conventional approaches, reduction of reaction time (up to 80%) and temperature (up to 500 K) and, simultaneously, an increase in yield were achieved. In the majority of cases, the solid products were phase-pure. X-Ray diffraction on single crystals (redetermination of 11 crystal structures) has demonstrated that the quality of the crystals from RTILs is comparable to that of products obtained by chemical transport reactions.
Solvent Extraction of Sr2+ and Cs+ Based on Hydrophobic Protic Ionic Liquids