Studio di miscele multicomponente di liquidi ionici e composti molecolari

Ionic Liquids (ILs) are presently one of the hot topics in modern Chemistry. These compounds are basically salts having melting points below 100°C and typical features of great appeal in so many fields that I will not even attempt to number them, spanning from synthesis, industrial interest up to waste recycle . A number of 10^18 possible different ILs has been estimated and, nowadays, just a very small fraction of them is completely characterized under their physical and chemical aspects.Mixing two compounds often leads to some peculiar and unespected property of the related solution, otherwise not observable in the starting materials, thus to obtain new solvents and chemical products. That might be a more convenient route than the synthesis of a new molecule both from mere commercial and environmental considerations. The main goal of my research project is the understanding of the mechanism standing at the basis of mixing Ethylammonium Nitrate (EAN) with a number of other molecules chosen on the basis of polarity considerations. EAN is the perfect candidate for this study because it is the prototype of a wide class of ILs classified as Protic Ionic Liquids. These chemical substances are often named the "Green Solvent of the Future" and an ambitious target of my studies upon selected mixtures of ionic liquids might be, if successfully accomplished, the finding of an inexpensive protocol to deal with materials of practical use. To achieve this goal, the full characterization of chosen systems is actually mandatory and therefore several investigation techniques should be used, such as spectroscopy, calorimetry, diffraction and computational simulations.