Enabling industrial deployment of deep eutectic solvents through manufacturing tools

溶剂在化学中无处不在，用于将物种聚集在一起进行反应，分离和加工，但大多数化学合成使用挥发性有机化合物（VOC）。VOC是有毒的、挥发性的、易燃的，并且对于在其中进行的反应而言是很大程度上被动的旁观者，但是对于从治疗剂到催化剂颗粒的化学物质的所有工业生产而言是核心的。然而，最近，我们的一个团队已经证明了一系列新型溶剂，即深共熔溶剂（DES），可以使水敏感的合成反应在实验台上安全地进行，并在指导反应和结构化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，更环保的液体取代VOC，此外，这些液体还具有目前尚不了解的有趣特性，使它们能够对抗现有的合成实践。然而，DES在将其转化为生产实践方面也带来了挑战，需要开发新的制造平台以使其能够在工业过程中快速部署，以及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。廉价，无毒，可生物降解，来源于生物质，它们对于特定应用具有高度可调性。然而，令人惊讶的是，很少有人了解DES的结构和相互作用如何促进和指导合成。该项目旨在将对DES中溶剂结构和DES中溶质相互作用的更好理解与最先进的有机金属合成和功能性超材料制备联系起来，并重点关注制造解决方案的实施，以使这些基础研究成为真实的工业实践的途径。在DES和新型连续制造技术中使用分子组装将为设计更便宜，更安全，更环保的反应过程开辟道路，从而产生新的功能材料和更绿色的药物，农用化学品和其他精细化学品路线。

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.