Jasna Halambek

A brief overview of the potential environmental hazards of ionic liquids.

Over past decades ionic liquids, a promising alternative to traditional organic solvents, have been dramatically expanding in popularity as a new generation of chemicals with potential uses in various areas in industry. In the literature these compounds have often been referred to as environmentally friendly; however, in recent years the perception of their greenness dramatically changed as the scientific community began to proactively assess the risk of their application based on the entire life-cycle. This review gives a brief overview of the current knowledge regarding the potential risks linked to the application of ionic liquids - from preparation to their disposal, with special emphasis on their potential environmental impacts and future directions in designing inherently safer ionic liquids.

Ionske kapljevine – razvoj i izazovi industrijske primjene

Posljednjih godina sve veći negativni učinci na okoliš i ljude, poput zagađenja zraka, tla i vode te promjena klime na globalnoj razini, posljedica su neprimjerene primjene raznih štetnih tvari koje se izravno ili neizravno primjenjuju u kemijskoj, petrokemijskoj, farmaceutskoj, biotehnološkoj i agrokemijskoj industriji. Primjerice, hlapljiva organska otapala čine gotovo ⁄3 svih industrijskih emisija širom svijeta, pri čemu je većina toksična, zapaljiva i korozivna, dok je njihovo recikliranje i ponovna uporaba povezana s energetski zahtjevnom destilacijom uz znatne gubitke.1 Stoga akademska zajednica pridaje veliku pozornost pronalasku novih, ekološki prihvatljivih i neškodljivih otapala.