Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
Molecules. 2022 Aug 30;27(17):5583. doi: 10.3390/molecules27175583.
Temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE) utilizes an amine solvent with temperature-dependent water solubility to dissolve water at a lower temperature to concentrate or crystallize the brine and the phases are separated. Then, the water in solvent mixture is heated to reduce water solubility and cause phase separation between the solvent and water. The solvent and de-salted water phases are separated, and the regenerated solvent can be recycled. Issues with current TSSE solvents include the high solvent in water solubility and the high solvent volatility. This project used the highly tunable platform molecule imidazole to create two 1-butylimidazole isomers, specifically 1-propyl-4(5)-methylimidazole, to test their effectiveness for TSSE. The imidazoles take in more water than their current state-of-the-art counterparts, but do not desalinate the product water and dissolve in water at higher concentrations. Thus, while imidazoles make intriguing candidates for TSSE, further work is needed to understand how to design imidazoles that will be useful for TSSE applications.
变温溶剂萃取（TSSE）利用一种胺溶剂，该溶剂的水溶性随温度变化，可在较低温度下溶解水，以浓缩或结晶盐水，然后将相分离。然后，将溶剂混合物中的水加热以降低水溶性，并在溶剂和水之间引起相分离。将溶剂和脱盐水相分离，再生的溶剂可以回收。目前 TSSE 溶剂存在的问题包括溶剂在水中的高溶解度和高挥发性。本项目使用高度可调的平台分子咪唑合成了两种 1-丁基咪唑异构体，即 1-丙基-4(5)-甲基咪唑，以测试它们在 TSSE 中的有效性。与目前最先进的同类物相比，这些咪唑能吸收更多的水，但不能脱盐产品水，而且在较高浓度下溶于水。因此，虽然咪唑是 TSSE 的一个有趣的候选物，但仍需要进一步的工作来了解如何设计对 TSSE 应用有用的咪唑。
