We describe a series of novel compounds designed to combat the bacterial growth that leads to microbially induced corrosion on steel in the marine environment. A synergistic effect of the ionic components in these dual active organic salts is demonstrated.

Ionic liquids have been shown to be highly effective lubricants for a steel on aluminium system. This work shows that the chemistry of the anion and cation are critical in achieving maximum wear protection. The performance of the ILs containing a diphenylphosphate (DPP) anion all showed low wear, as did some of the tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate (FAP) and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide (NTf(2)) anion containing ILs. However, in the case of the FAP and NTf(2) based systems, a cation dependence was observed, with relatively poor wear resistance obtained in the case of an imidazolium FAP and two pyrrolidinium NTf(2) salts, probably due to tribocorrosion caused by the fluorine reaction with the aluminium substrate. The systems exhibiting poor performance generally had a lower viscosity, which also impacts on their tribological properties. Those ILs that exhibited low wear were shown to have formed protective tribofilms on the aluminium alloy surface.

Choline-based biocompatible salts were used as "nutrients" for the growth of Staphylococcus lentus bacteria. Increase in the growth rate of bacteria was observed, compared to conventional carbon sources. In the case of the ionic liquid, choline lactate, the increase was pronounced. Bacterial growth was correlated with power-time curve in an investigation monitored online by reaction calorimetry. From the power-time curve, three phases of the growth can be distinctly seen. Heat yield coefficients estimated for the growth of S. lentus were found to match well with those reported hitherto. A comparative study of heat yields (catabolic) between glucose and choline lactate revealed significant information; the heat yield due to choline lactate (Y (Q/S)) consumption and oxygen (Y (Q/O)) were 23.4 kJ/g and 435 kJ/mol and whereas that for glucose with oxygen were 9.6 kJ/g and 427 kJ/mol, respectively, showing clearly the preferential affinity of choline lactate by the bacteria rather than glucose. This study also established that the use of ionic liquids as nutrients can be monitored using bioreaction calorimetry.

Industrial waste-water such as tannery and textile processing effluents are often characterized by a high content of dissolved organic dyes, resulting in large values of chemical and biological oxygen demand (COD and BOD) in the aquatic systems into which they are discharged. Such waste-water streams are of rapidly growing concern as a major environmental issue in developing countries. Hence there is a need to mitigate this challenge by effective approaches to degrade dye-contaminated waste water. In this study, several choline-based salts originally developed for use as biocompatible hydrated ionic liquids (i.e., choline sacchrinate (CS), choline dihydrogen phosphate (CDP), choline lactate (CL), choline tartarate (CT) have been successfully employed as the co-substrate with S.lentus in the bio-degradation of an azo dye in aqueous solution. We also demonstrate that the azo dye has been degraded to less toxic components coupled with low biomass formation.

A series of new protic compounds based on active pharmaceutical ingredients have been synthesised and characterised. Some of the salts synthesised produced ionic liquids, while others that were associated with rigid molecular structures tended to produce high melting points. The "protonic" behaviour of these compounds was found to be a major determinant of their properties. Indicator studies, FTIR-ATR and transport properties (Walden plot) were used to probe the extent of proton transfer and ion association in these ionic liquids. While proton transfer was shown to have taken place in all cases, the Walden plot indicated strong ion association in the primary amine based examples due to hydrogen bonding. This was further explored via crystal structures of related compounds, which showed that extended hydrogen bonded clusters tend to form in these salts. These clusters may dictate membrane transport properties of these compounds in vivo.

Ionic liquids are being intensely studied as promising media for the stabilization of proteins and other biomolecules. Choline dihydrogen phosphate (CDHP) has been identified as one of the most promising candidates for this application. In this work we have probed in more detail the effects that CDHP may have on the thermodynamics, structure, and stability of proteins, including one of therapeutic interest. Microcalorimetry and circular dichroism spectropolarimetry (CD) were used to assess the thermal stability of protein solutions in CDHP/water mixtures at various concentrations. Increasing thermal stability of lysozyme and interleukin-2 in proportion to CDHP concentration was observed. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was used to quantify binding interactions, and indicate that the mechanism for stability does not appear to be dependent upon CDHP binding to protein. CD and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analyses were used to probe for structural changes due to the presence of CDHP. SAXS indicates charge effects on the surface of the protein play a role in protein stability in ionic liquids, and no significant alteration of the overall tertiary conformation of lysozyme was observed at 25 °C. However, after incubation at 37 °C or at higher concentrations of CDHP, small changes in protein structure were seen. Effects on protein activity were monitored using turbidity assays, and CDHP decreases protein activity but does not eliminate it. Protein solubility was also monitored using a turbidity assay and was found to be inversely proportional to the concentration of CDHP in solution.

1,3-Disubstituted imidazolium ionic liquids have been the subject of numerous theoretical and experimental studies due to their low viscosity-often the very lowest for any given cation/anion family. One of the mysteries in the imidazolium family of salts is the sharp increase in viscosity that is observed on methylating at the C2 position in the ring. In the nonmethylated case, the C2 proton is observed to be distinctly acidic and, where this is undesirable, substitution of the C2 position removes the problem, but produces an unexpected increase in viscosity. Methylation at other positions on the ring does not produce such a significant effect. In this study, two possible structural or energetic sources of the increased viscosity were investigated:(1) ion association, as probed by the Walden rule, and (2) differences in the potential energy surface profiles that favor ionic transport in the non C2-methylated imidazolium ionic liquids. The second hypothesis was investigated using high-level ab initio theory. The higher viscosity of C2-methylated imidazolium ionic liquids is shown to be a result of high potential energy barriers (significantly above the available thermal energy) between the energetically preferred conformations on the potential energy surface, thus restricting movement of ions in the liquid state to only small oscillations and inhibiting the overall ion transport.

The nature of hydrogen bonding was compared in neutral complexes and negatively charged complexes consisting of either the HF molecule or the halide anion (fluoride and chloride) and the C-H bond in the methane molecule with a varying degree of fluorination (such as CH(4), CH(2)F(2), and CHF(3)). Both linear (C(3v) symmetry) and nonlinear (C(2v) symmetry) hydrogen-bonded complexes were studied. Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory was used to decompose interaction energies into fundamental components such as Coulomb, repulsion, induction and dispersion to analyze the interplay among these forces in stabilizing hydrogen bonding. In the linear charged complexes, both Coulomb attraction and induction significantly contributed to the stabilization of hydrogen bonding. In the nonlinear charged complexes, mainly Coulomb attraction contributed to the HB complex stabilization, with the inductive forces playing a less important role. Contrary to the neutral complexes, dispersion forces played only a marginal role in the charged complexes. Interplay between the fundamental forces was also investigated in the ion pairs of the imidazolium-based ionic liquid,[C(2)mim]Cl, that were categorized as either (1) typical ion-ion interaction, with the anion interacting from above or below the imidazolium plane; or (2) hydrogen-bonding interaction, with the anion interacting with the C2-H bond of the imidazolium cation. Both types of interactions were found to induce similar charge transfers, and the analysis of the energetic components revealed only a slight difference in the ion pairs studied:(1) both interactions were electrostatically driven, between 86% and 88% of the overall attractive energy, with the electrostatic component being slightly lower in the hydrogen-bonded ion pairs by ~8 kJ mol(-1); and (2) dispersion forces were found to be stronger in the typical ion-ion interactions by ~15 kJ mol(-1) and could be possible only due to the fact that the anion was able to move closer to the cation with no steric hindrance. From the experimental point of view, a vibrational red shift is expected in the hydrogen-bonded complexes of imidazolium-based ionic liquids, whereas the ion-ion interactions are more likely to produce a slight blue shift.

Fully ab initio large-scale calculations of archetypical ionic liquids consisting of up to eight ion pairs are presented for the first time. These are used to validate the computationally efficient Fragment Molecular Orbital approach applied to these semi-Coulombic systems, paving the way towards accurate prediction of their transport properties.

Novel protic ionic liquids (PILs) based on a tributyl phosphonium cation have been synthesised and characterised, revealing that the phosphonium based ILs show high thermal stability, high ionic conductivity and facile proton reduction compared to the corresponding ammonium based ILs.