One of the possible solutions to prevent global climate change is the reduction of CO₂ emissions, which is highly desired for the sustainable development of our society. In this work, the chemical absorption of carbon dioxide in amino acid ionic liquids was studied through first-principles methods. The use of readily accessible and biodegradable amino acids as building blocks for ionic liquids makes them highly promising replacements for the widely applied hazardous aqueous solutions of amines. A detailed insight into the reaction mechanism of the CO₂ absorption was obtained through state-of-the-art theoretical methods. This allowed us to determine the reason for the specific CO₂ capacities found experimentally. Moreover, we have also conducted a theoretical design of ionic liquids to provide valuable insights into the precise tuning of the energetic and kinetic parameters of the CO₂ absorption.

Ionic liquids (ILs), vary strongly in their interaction with CO₂. We suggest simple theoretical approach to predict the CO₂ absorption behavior of ILs. Strong interaction of the CO₂ with the IL anions corresponds to chemical absorption whereas weak interaction indicates physical absorption. A predictive estimate with a clear distinction between physical and chemical absorption can be simply obtained according to geometries optimized in the presence of a solvation model instead of optimizing it only in gas phase as has been done to date. The resulting Gibbs free energies compare very well with experimental values and the energies were correlated with experimental capacities. Promising anions, for ionic liquids with reversible CO₂ absorption properties can be defined by a reaction Gibbs free energy of absorption in the range of −30 to 16 kJ mol⁻¹.

Ionische Flüssigkeiten (ILs) variieren stark in ihrer Wechselwirkung mit CO₂. Es wird ein einfaches theoretisches Verfahren vorgeschlagen, mit dem sich das Absorptionsverhalten von ILs vorhersagen lässt. Während starke Wechselwirkungen der IL-Anionen mit CO₂ chemische Absorption bedeuten, weisen schwache auf physikalische Absorption hin. Eine Abschätzung mit klarer Trennung zwischen chemischer und physikalischer Absorption kann leicht erhalten werden, indem die Geometrie in Gegenwart eines Solvatationsmodells optimiert wird statt wie bisher nur in der Gasphase. Aus diesen solvatisierten Geometrien lassen sich Gibbs-Energien erhalten, die sehr gut mit experimentellen Werten übereinstimmen. Somit können die berechneten Gibbs-Energien mit vermessenen Kapazitäten korreliert werden. Vielversprechende Anionen für den Entwurf von ILs für reversible chemische CO₂-Absorption können durch berechnete Gibbs-Reaktionsenergien definiert werden. Für diese Kandidaten lassen sich wiederum die Kapazitäten aus der eben erwähnten Korrelation abschätzen.

We present here the possibility of forming triphilic mixtures from alkyl- and fluoroalkylimidazolium ionic liquids, thus, macroscopically homogeneous mixtures for which instead of the often observed two domains—polar and nonpolar—three stable microphases are present: polar, lipophilic, and fluorous ones. The fluorinated side chains of the cations indeed self-associate and form domains that are segregated from those of the polar and alkyl domains. To enable miscibility, despite the generally preferred macroscopic separation between fluorous and alkyl moieties, the importance of strong hydrogen bonding is shown. As the long-range structure in the alkyl and fluoroalkyl domains is dependent on the composition of the liquid, we propose that the heterogeneous, triphilic structure can be easily tuned by the molar ratio of the components. We believe that further development may allow the design of switchable, smart liquids that change their properties in a predictable way according to their composition or even their environment.

In the present computational work, we develop a new tool for our trajectory analysis program TRAVIS to analyze the well-known behavior of liquids to separate into microphases. The dissection of the liquid into domains of different subsets, for example, in the case of fluorinated ionic liquids with anionic and cationic head groups (forming together the polar domain), fluorous, and alkyl subsets is followed by radical Voronoi tessellation. This leads to useful average quantities of the subset neighbor count, that is, the domain count that gives the amount of particular domains in the liquid, the domain volume and surface, as well as the isoperimetric quotient, which provides a measure of the deviation of the domains from a spherical shape. Thus, the newly implemented method allows analysis of the domains in terms of their numbers and shapes on a qualitative and also quantitative basis. It is a simple, direct, and automated analysis that does not need evaluation of the structure beforehand in terms of, for example, first solvent shell minima. In the microheterogeneous ionic liquids that we used as examples, the polar subsets always form a single domain in all investigated liquids. Although the fluorous side chains are also more or less connected in one or, maximally, two domains, the alkyl phases are dispersed.

The solvation of the carbene 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazole-2-ylidene in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate was investigated by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations in order to reveal the interaction between these two highly important classes of materials: N-heterocyclic carbenes with superb catalytic activity and ionic liquids with advantageous properties as solvents and reaction media. In contrast to previously published data on analogous systems, no hydrogen bond is observed between the hypovalent carbon atom and the most acidic ring hydrogen atoms, as these interaction sites of the imidazolium ring are predominantly occupied by the acetate ions. Keeping the carbene away from the ring hydrogen atoms prevents stabilization of this reactive species, and hence any retarding effect on subsequent reactions, which explains the observed high reactivity of the carbene in acetate-based ionic liquids. Instead, the carbene exhibits a weaker interaction with the methyl group of the imidazolium cation by forming a hitherto unprecedented kind of C⋅⋅⋅HC hydrogen bond. This unexpected finding not only indicates a novel kind of hydrogen bond for carbenes, but also shows that such interaction sites of the imidazolium cation are not limited to the ring hydrogen atoms. Thus, the results give the solute–solvent interactions within ionic liquids a new perspective, and provide a further, albeit weak, site of interaction to tune in order to achieve the desired environment for any dissolved active ingredient.