Enabling industrial deployment of deep eutectic solvents through manufacturing tools

溶剂在化学中普遍存在，用于将物种聚集在一起进行反应、分离和加工，但大多数化学合成都使用挥发性有机化合物(VOCs)。VOCs有毒、易挥发、易燃，在很大程度上是在它们内部进行的反应的被动旁观者，但对于从治疗到催化剂颗粒的所有化学物种的工业生产来说，VOCs都是核心。然而，最近，我们的一个团队已经证明了一系列新型溶剂-深度共熔溶剂(DES)-允许在台面上安全地进行水敏合成反应，并在指导反应和构建纳米材料方面发挥积极作用。因此，这类最近开发的溶剂具有巨大的潜力，可以用更安全、更绿色的液体取代VOCs，此外，这种液体具有目前尚不清楚的耐人寻味的特性，使它们能够挑战现有的合成实践。然而，DES在将其转化为制造实践方面也带来了自己的挑战，需要开发一种新的制造平台来使其能够快速部署到工业过程中，并需要更好地了解这些溶剂如何促进合成。DES是由盐和氢键中性分子的混合物组成的室温液体。它们廉价、无毒、可生物降解，来自生物质，可针对特定应用进行高度可调。然而，令人惊讶的是，人们对DES的结构和相互作用如何促进和指导合成知之甚少。该项目旨在更好地了解DES中的溶剂结构和DES中的溶质相互作用，与最先进的有机金属合成和功能元材料制备相结合，并重点关注制造解决方案的实施，使这些基础研究成为进入实际工业实践的途径。在DES中使用分子组装和新颖的连续制造技术将为设计更便宜、更安全、更环保的反应过程开辟道路，导致新的功能材料和更环保的路线，从而获得制药、农用化学品和其他精细化学品。

Solvents are ubiquitous in chemistry, used to bring species together for reactions, for separations and for processing but most chemical synthesis makes use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are toxic, volatile, flammable and are largely passive spectators to the reactions carried out within them yet are central to all industrial production of chemical species from therapeutics to catalyst particles. Recently, however, a family of novel solvents, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been demonstrated, by one of our team, to allow water-sensitive synthetic reactions to be safely done on the benchtop and also to play an active role in directing reactions and structuring nanomaterials. This recently developed class of solvents therefore have enormous potential to replace VOCs with safer, greener liquids which, in addition, have intriguing properties, currently not understood, that allow them to defy existing synthetic practice. Yet DES bring their own challenges to transitioning them into manufacturing practice, requiring development of a new manufacturing platform to enable their rapid deployment in industrial processes, as well as requiring an improved understanding of how these solvents facilitate syntheses.DES are room temperature liquids consisting of mixtures of a salt and hydrogen-bonding neutral molecules. Cheap, non-toxic, biodegradable, sourced from biomass, they are highly tuneable for specific applications. Yet, surprisingly little is understood about how DES structures and interactions facilitate and direct syntheses. This project aims to link a greater understanding of solvent structuring in DES and solute interactions in DES, with state-of-the-art organometallic synthesis and functional meta-materials preparation, and crucially focuses on implementation of manufacturing solutions to allow these fundamental investigations a route into real industrial practices. Use of molecular assemblies in DES and novel continuous manufacturing technologies will open the way to design of cheaper, safer, more environmentally friendly reaction processes, leading to new functional materials and greener routes to pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and other fine chemicals.