Dr. Cabezas-Cornejo, René

Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are a category of a new class of solvents that can overcome some of the main drawbacks of typical solvents and ionic liquids (ILs). DES have been widely investigated and applied by the research community in several applications since their invention. Over the past years, the use of DES has been directed to the production of new materials and items for new products and processes. This is the case for the implementation of DES in various fields of chemical engineering directed to separations. DES have been very recently initiated to be combined into membranes for membrane processes. In this regard, this Review timely elucidates the current progress in utilizing this new generation of solvents in membrane preparation. In this work, different techniques, methods, and strategies for incorporating DES into polymer membranes for different concepts of membranes according to the final application have been reviewed. Particular emphasis has been devoted to the most relevant development works and results. After the current literature was analyzed, the main challenges and possibilities of DES in membranes were declared.

This work explores a protonated L-proline: glucose (molar ratio 5:1) deep eutectic solvent (DES) in fabricating biopolymer membranes utilizing chitosan (CS). Initially, the miscibility of CS and DES to prepare homogeneous dense blend membranes has been investigated. Different techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy, contact angle (CA), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and swelling degree (uptake), were used to characterize the structure of the resulting membranes. Within the pervaporation performance for ethanol dehydration, Arrhenius and mass transfer analysis were analysed in detail. Interestingly, the addition of DESs provided superior performance to crosslinked CS: DES membranes compared with the ones lacking DES. Based on the morphology and properties observed, this new concept of CS-based membranes can be alternatively applied in other solvent separations requiring hydrophilic membranes.