Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as viable alternatives to toxic organic solvents. The most intriguing aspect of these solvents is perhaps the widely varying physicochemical properties emerging from the changes in the constituents that form DESs along with their composition. Based on the c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Anushis Patra, Vaishali Khokhar, Siddharth Pandey
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-07-01
Series:Liquids
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8015/4/3/28
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850260509284106240
author Anushis Patra
Vaishali Khokhar
Siddharth Pandey
author_facet Anushis Patra
Vaishali Khokhar
Siddharth Pandey
author_sort Anushis Patra
collection DOAJ
description Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as viable alternatives to toxic organic solvents. The most intriguing aspect of these solvents is perhaps the widely varying physicochemical properties emerging from the changes in the constituents that form DESs along with their composition. Based on the constituents, a DES can be hydrophilic/polar or hydrophobic/non-polar, rendering a vastly varying spectrum of polarity a possibility. DESs formed by mixing urea (U) with hydrated lanthanide salts, lanthanum nitrate hexahydrate (La : U), cerium nitrate hexahydrate (Ce : U), and gadolinium nitrate hexahydrate (Gd : U), respectively, exhibit very high polarity as manifested via the probe-reported empirical parameters of dipolarity/polarizability (<i>π*</i>). The highest <i>π*</i> of 1.70 exhibited by the DES (Gd : U) in a 1 : 2 molar ratio is unprecedented. The <i>π*</i> ranges from 1.50 to 1.70 for these DESs, which is almost the highest reported for any solvent system. The <i>π*</i> decreases with an increasing amount of urea in the DES; however, the anomalous trends in H-bond donating acidity (<i>α</i>) and H-bond accepting basicity (<i>β</i>) appear to be due to the hydrated water of the lanthanide salt. The emission band maxima of the fluorescence probe of the “effective” dielectric constant (<i>ε</i><sub>eff</sub>) of the solubilizing media, pyrene-1-carboxaldehyde (PyCHO), in salt-rich DESs reflect higher cybotactic region dipolarity than that offered by water. Probe Nile red aggregates readily in these DESs to form non-fluorescent H-aggregates, which is a characteristic of highly polar solvents. The behavior of probe pyranine also corroborates these outcomes as the (lanthanide salt : urea) DES system supports the formation of the deprotonated form of the probe in the excited state. The (lanthanide salt : urea) DES system offers solubilizing media of exceptionally high polarity, which is bound to expand their application potential.
format Article
id doaj-art-078305ccf3fc4320b16a9b7217fd1c90
institution OA Journals
issn 2673-8015
language English
publishDate 2024-07-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Liquids
spelling doaj-art-078305ccf3fc4320b16a9b7217fd1c902025-08-20T01:55:38ZengMDPI AGLiquids2673-80152024-07-014350551710.3390/liquids4030028Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and UreaAnushis Patra0Vaishali Khokhar1Siddharth Pandey2Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDepartment of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDepartment of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDeep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as viable alternatives to toxic organic solvents. The most intriguing aspect of these solvents is perhaps the widely varying physicochemical properties emerging from the changes in the constituents that form DESs along with their composition. Based on the constituents, a DES can be hydrophilic/polar or hydrophobic/non-polar, rendering a vastly varying spectrum of polarity a possibility. DESs formed by mixing urea (U) with hydrated lanthanide salts, lanthanum nitrate hexahydrate (La : U), cerium nitrate hexahydrate (Ce : U), and gadolinium nitrate hexahydrate (Gd : U), respectively, exhibit very high polarity as manifested via the probe-reported empirical parameters of dipolarity/polarizability (<i>π*</i>). The highest <i>π*</i> of 1.70 exhibited by the DES (Gd : U) in a 1 : 2 molar ratio is unprecedented. The <i>π*</i> ranges from 1.50 to 1.70 for these DESs, which is almost the highest reported for any solvent system. The <i>π*</i> decreases with an increasing amount of urea in the DES; however, the anomalous trends in H-bond donating acidity (<i>α</i>) and H-bond accepting basicity (<i>β</i>) appear to be due to the hydrated water of the lanthanide salt. The emission band maxima of the fluorescence probe of the “effective” dielectric constant (<i>ε</i><sub>eff</sub>) of the solubilizing media, pyrene-1-carboxaldehyde (PyCHO), in salt-rich DESs reflect higher cybotactic region dipolarity than that offered by water. Probe Nile red aggregates readily in these DESs to form non-fluorescent H-aggregates, which is a characteristic of highly polar solvents. The behavior of probe pyranine also corroborates these outcomes as the (lanthanide salt : urea) DES system supports the formation of the deprotonated form of the probe in the excited state. The (lanthanide salt : urea) DES system offers solubilizing media of exceptionally high polarity, which is bound to expand their application potential.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8015/4/3/28deep eutectic solventhydrated lanthanide saltsureadipolarity/polarizability (<i>π*</i>)pyrene-1-carboxaldehydeNile red
spellingShingle Anushis Patra
Vaishali Khokhar
Siddharth Pandey
Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea
Liquids
deep eutectic solvent
hydrated lanthanide salts
urea
dipolarity/polarizability (<i>π*</i>)
pyrene-1-carboxaldehyde
Nile red
title Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea
title_full Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea
title_fullStr Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea
title_full_unstemmed Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea
title_short Unprecedented High Probe-Reported Polarity of Deep Eutectic Solvents Composed of Lanthanide Salts and Urea
title_sort unprecedented high probe reported polarity of deep eutectic solvents composed of lanthanide salts and urea
topic deep eutectic solvent
hydrated lanthanide salts
urea
dipolarity/polarizability (<i>π*</i>)
pyrene-1-carboxaldehyde
Nile red
url https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8015/4/3/28
work_keys_str_mv AT anushispatra unprecedentedhighprobereportedpolarityofdeepeutecticsolventscomposedoflanthanidesaltsandurea
AT vaishalikhokhar unprecedentedhighprobereportedpolarityofdeepeutecticsolventscomposedoflanthanidesaltsandurea
AT siddharthpandey unprecedentedhighprobereportedpolarityofdeepeutecticsolventscomposedoflanthanidesaltsandurea