Ionic Liquids and Deep Eutectic Solvents and Their Use for Dissolving Animal Hair

Abstract

In recent years, one of the priority areas of research in chemistry has become the processes carried out in an environment of liquid organic salts, the so-called ionic liquids (ILs), which are assessed as environmentally friendly or “green” alternatives to conventional organic solvents. ILs are non-volatile, highly polar solvents that dissolve many organic, inorganic, and organometallic compounds. Since they have no detectable vapor pressure, ILs are considered as potential substitutes for volatile organic compounds traditionally used as solvents. So-called deep eutectic solvents (DES) is a group of ILs that are liquid mixtures of a number of organic and (or) inorganic components taken in a certain ratio (eutectic or close to eutectic). DES deserve a special attention due to their negligible saturated vapor pressure, availability, low cost, as well as ability to dissolve at relatively high concentration of metal salts, metal oxides and various polymers. Particularly DES based on a mixture of choline chloride with urea (DES-1) or a mixture of choline chloride and adduct of urea with hydrogen peroxide (DES-2) give eutectics that are liquid at ambient temperature and have unusual solvent properties, including an ability to dissolve an animal hair in the presence of low concentration of sodium sulfide or ammonium thioglycolate. It was found that depending on the ratio between DES-1 and DES-2 in the mixture of two Deep Eutectic Solvents and the nature of sulfur-containing additive, the solubility of rabbit hair under used conditions, varies from 51% to 79%.