O. Andreea Cojocaru

Ionic liquid forms of the herbicide dicamba with increased efficacy and reduced volatility

Twenty eight new dicamba (3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid)-based herbicidal salts, have been synthesized and characterized in order to attempt to improve the efficacy of this widely known herbicide used to protect maize, grassland, and other cultures. The new compounds, most of which are ionic liquids by definition and three of which are solids melting above 100 °C, were prepared by pairing quaternary tetraalkyl- or alkoxyammonium, piperidinium, imidazolium, pyridinium, morpholinium, quinolinium, and phosphonium cations with the dicamba anion. Growth chamber and field test data suggested that ionic liquid forms of dicamba offer substantially increased efficacy which would allow less to be applied in the field. Compared to the commercial dicamba free acid product, improved physical properties were observed including higher decomposition temperatures and reduced volatilities, suggesting a potential reduction of overall environmental impact of this herbicide.

Drug specific, tuning of an ionic liquid's hydrophilic–lipophilic balance to improve water solubility of poorly soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients

Amphotericin B and itraconazole were used to demonstrate that ionic liquids can be designed or chosen to provide tunable hydrophilicity in one ion and lipophilicity in the other allowing one to match the structural requirements needed to solubilize poorly water soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients. These liquid, amphiphilic excipients could be used as both drug delivery systems and solubilization agents to improve the aqueous solubility of many drugs. The solubility in deionized water, simulated gastric fluid, simulated intestinal fluid, and phosphate buffer solution was greatly improved over current methods for drug delivery by utilizing designed ionic liquids as excipients.

Hypergolic Ionic Liquids to Mill, Suspend and Ignite Boron Nanoparticles

Boron nanoparticles prepared by milling in the presence of a hypergolic energetic ionic liquid (EIL) are suspendable in the EIL and the EIL retains hypergolicity leading to the ignition of the boron. This approach allows for incorporation of a variety of nanoscale additives to improve EIL properties, such as energetic density and heat of combustion, while providing stability and safe handling of the nanomaterials.

Molecular interactions in aqueous biphasic systems composed of polyethylene glycol and crystalline vs. liquid cholinium-based salts

The relative ability of cholinium-([Ch](+))-based salts, including ionic liquids (ILs), to form biocompatible aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) with polyethylene glycols (PEGs) was deeply scrutinized in this work. Aqueous solutions of low molecular weight PEG polymers (400, 600, and 1000 g mol(-1)) and [Ch](+) salts of chloride, acetate, bicarbonate, glycolate, lactate, dihydrogenphosphate, dihydrogencitrate, and bitartrate can undergo liquid-liquid demixing at certain concentrations of the phase-forming components and at several temperatures. Cholinium butanoate and propanoate were also studied; however, these long alkyl side chain ILs are not able to promote an immiscibility region with PEG aqueous solutions. The ternary liquid-liquid phase diagrams, binary water activities, PEG-salt and salt-H2O solubility data, and binary and ternary excess enthalpies estimated by COSMO-RS (COnductor-like Screening MOdel for Realistic Solvation) were used to obtain new insights into the molecular-level mechanisms responsible for phase separation. Instead of the expected and commonly reported salting-out phenomenon induced by the [Ch](+) salts over the polymer, the formation of PEG-[Ch](+) salt ABS was revealed to be an end result of a more intricate molecular scenario. The multifaceted approach employed here reveals that the ability to promote an ABS is quite different for the higher melting salts vs. the lower melting or liquid ILs. In the latter systems, the ABS formation seems to be controlled by the interplay of the relative strengths of the ion-ion, ion-water, ion-PEG, and water-PEG interactions, with a significant contribution from specific hydrogen-bonding between the IL anion and the PEG hydroxyl groups.

Prodrug ionic liquids: functionalizing neutral active pharmaceutical ingredients to take advantage of the ionic liquid form

Neutral, non- or not easily-ionizable active pharmaceutical ingredients can take advantage of the unique property sets of ionic liquids by functionalization with hydrolyzable, charged (or ionizable) groups in the preparation of ionic liquid prodrugs as demonstrated here with the synthesis, characterization, and hydrolysis of cationic acetaminophen prodrugs paired with the docusate anion.

Simultaneous membrane transport of two active pharmaceutical ingredients by charge assisted hydrogen bond complex formation

Using permeation through a model membrane in a Franz diffusion cell, we have demonstrated that acidic and basic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in deep eutectic ‘liquid co-crystal’ form can be held tightly together, even in solution, via strong hydrogen bonds or partially ionized interactions, providing simultaneous transport at rates much higher than solutions of their corresponding, commercially available crystalline salts, albeit at rates that are lower than the neutral forms of the individual molecules. It was also shown that the deep eutectic APIs do not have to be premade, but hydrogen-bonded complexes can be formed in situ by mixing the corresponding API–solvent solutions. To understand the behavior, we have extensively studied a range of nonstoichiometric mixtures of lidocaine and ibuprofen spectroscopically and via membrane transport. The data demonstrates the nature of the interactions between the acid and base and provides a route to tune the rate of membrane transport.

Zinc-assisted synthesis of imidazolium-tetrazolate bi-heterocyclic zwitterions with variable alkyl bridge length

Zinc halide-complexed alkyl-bridged bi-heterocycles were obtained as zwitterions from the Click reaction of a series of N-cyanoalkyl-N-alkylimidazolium halide ionic liquids with sodium azide. Reaction optimization showed fast reaction times and milder conditions compared to conventional Click syntheses from neutral nitriles.

Reactivity of N-cyanoalkyl-substituted imidazolium halide salts by simple elution through an azide anion exchange resin

Certain N-cyanoalkyl-functionalized imidazolium halide salts unexpectedly undergo nitrile hydrolysis to amides, as well as dipolar cycloaddition to tetrazoles when eluted on azide anion exchanged resin.