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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Cation-cation clusters in ionic liquids: Cooperative hydrogen bonding overcomes like-charge repulsion
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2015) Knorr, Anne; Ludwig, Ralf
    Direct spectroscopic evidence for H-bonding between like-charged ions is reported for the ionic liquid, 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate. New infrared bands in the OH frequency range appear at low temperatures indicating the formation of H-bonded cation-cation clusters similar to those known for water and alcohols. Supported by DFT calculations, these vibrational bands can be assigned to attractive interaction between the hydroxyl groups of the cations. The repulsive Coulomb interaction is overcome by cooperative hydrogen bonding between ions of like charge. The transition energy from purely cation-anion interacting configurations to those including cation-cation H-bonds is determined to be 3–4 kJmol−1. The experimental findings and DFT calculations strongly support the concept of anti-electrostatic hydrogen bonds (AEHBs) as recently suggested by Weinhold and Klein. The like-charge configurations are kinetically stabilized with decreasing temperatures.
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    Novel acridine-based thiosemicarbazones as ‘turn-on' chemosensors for selective recognition of fluoride anion: a spectroscopic and theoretical study
    (London : Royal Soc. Publ., 2018-7-4) Isaac, Ibanga Okon; Munir, Iqra; al-Rashida, Mariya; Ali, Syed Abid; Shafiq, Zahid; Islam, Muhammad; Ludwig, Ralf; Ayub, Khurshid; Khan, Khalid Mohammed; Hameed, Abdul
    New thiosemicarbazide-linked acridines 3a–c were prepared and investigated as chemosensors for the detection of biologically and environmentally important anions. The compounds 3a–c were found selective for fluoride (F−) with no affinity for other anions, i.e. −OAc, Br−, I−, HSO4−, SO42−, PO43−, ClO3−, ClO4−, CN− and SCN−. Further, upon the gradual addition of a fluoride anion (F−) source (tetrabutylammonium fluoride), a well-defined change in colour of the solution of probes 3a–c was observed. The anion-sensing process was studied in detail via UV–visible absorption, fluorescence and 1H-NMR experiments. Moreover, during the synthesis of acridine probes 3a–c nickel fluoride (NiF2), a rarely explored transition metal fluoride salt, was used as the catalyst. Theoretical studies via density functional theory were also carried out to further investigate the sensing and anion (F−) selectivity pattern of these probes.
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    Cationic clustering influences the phase behaviour of ionic liquids
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2018) Niemann, Thomas; Zaitsau, Dimitri; Strate, Anne; Villinger, Alexander; Ludwig, Ralf
    “Unlike charges attract, but like charges repel”. This conventional wisdom has been recently challenged for ionic liquids. It could be shown that like-charged ions attract each other despite the powerful opposing electrostatic forces. In principle, cooperative hydrogen bonding between ions of like-charge can overcome the repulsive Coulomb interaction while pushing the limits of chemical bonding. The key challenge of this solvation phenomenon is to establish design principles for the efficient formation of clusters of like-charged ions in ionic liquids. This is realised here for a set of well-suited ionic liquids including the same hydrophobic anion but different cations all equipped with hydroxyethyl groups for possible H-bonding. The formation of H-bonded cationic clusters can be controlled by the delocalization of the positive charge on the cations. Strongly localized charge results in cation-anion interaction, delocalized charge leads to the formation of cationic clusters. For the first time we can show, that the cationic clusters influence the properties of ILs. ILs comprising these clusters can be supercooled and form glasses. Crystalline structures are obtained only, if the ILs are dominantly characterized by the attraction between opposite-charged ions resulting in conventional ion pairs. That may open a new path for controlling glass formation and crystallization. The glass temperatures and the phase transitions of the ILs are observed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy.
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    Low-melting manganese(II)-based ionic liquids: Syntheses, structures, properties and influence of trace impurities
    (Basel : MDPI, 2019) Peppel, Tim; Geppert-Rybczyńska, Monika; Neise, Christin; Kragl, Udo; Köckerling, Martin
    The synthesis of more than 10 new magnetic ionic liquids with [MnX4]2− anions, X = Cl, NCS, NCO, is presented. Detailed structural information through single-crystal X-ray diffraction is given for (DMDIm)[Mn(NCS)4], (BnEt3N)2[Mn(NCS)4], and {(Ph3P)2N}2[Mn(NCO4)]·0.6H2O, respectively. All compounds consist of discrete anions and cations with tetrahedrally coordinated Mn(II) atoms. They show paramagnetic behavior as expected for spin-only systems. Melting points are found for several systems below 100 °C classifying them as ionic liquids. Thermal properties are investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. The physicochemical properties of density, dynamic viscosity, electrolytic conductivity, and surface tension were measured temperature-dependent of selected samples. These properties are discussed in comparison to similar Co containing systems. An increasing amount of bromide impurity is found to affect the surface tension only up to 3.3%.
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    Combination of chemo- and biocatalysis: Conversion of biomethane to methanol and formic acid
    (Basel : MDPI, 2019) Kunkel, Benny; Seeburg, Dominik; Peppel, Tim; Stier, Matthias; Wohlrab, Sebastian
    In the present day, methanol is mainly produced from methane via reforming processes, but research focuses on alternative production routes. Herein, we present a chemo-/biocatalytic oxidation cascade as a novel process to currently available methods. Starting from synthetic biogas, in the first step methane was oxidized to formaldehyde over a mesoporous VOx/SBA-15 catalyst. In the second step, the produced formaldehyde was disproportionated enzymatically towards methanol and formic acid in equimolar ratio by formaldehyde dismutase (FDM) obtained from Pseudomonas putida. Two processing routes were demonstrated: (a) batch wise operation using free formaldehyde dismutase after accumulating formaldehyde from the first step and (b) continuous operation with immobilized enzymes. Remarkably, the chemo-/biocatalytic oxidation cascades generate methanol in much higher productivity compared to methane monooxygenase (MMO) which, however, directly converts methane. Moreover, production steps for the generation of formic acid were reduced from four to two stages. © 2019 by the authors.