Micellar shuttle of a polymeric ionic liquid (P(EHO)-CI-P(EtOx)) in a water/ethyl acetate two-phase system: Micellar load capacity and selective transfer of molecular anions

• Published in: European polymer journal Vol. 165; p. 111007
• Main Authors: Soto-Figueroa, César, Galicia-García, Tomas, Rodríguez-Hidalgo, María del Rosario, Vicente, Luis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 15.02.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Aqueous environments; Aqueous solutions; Binary systems; Cations; Dyes; Electrolytes; Ethyl acetate; Finite element method; Heat transfer; High temperature; Ionic liquids; Micellar shuttle; Micelles; Polyethyloxazoline; Polymeric ionic liquids; Polymeric Ionic Liquids micelles; Polymers; Room temperature; Selective ionic transfer; Temperature; Temperature effects; Polymeric ionic liquids; Micellar shuttle; Polymeric Ionic Liquids micelles; Selective ionic transfer
• ISSN: 0014-3057; 1873-1945
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2022.111007

[Display omitted] •We explored micellar shuttle of PIL micelles under the temperature effect.•Through mesoscopic models, the selective characteristic of the PIL is analysed.•The selective ionic transfer and micellar shuttle in biphasic systems are elucidated. Selective ionic load behaviour of a polymeric ionic liquid (PIL) (poly(3-ethyl-3-hydroxymethyloxetane)-cationic-imidazolium-poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) and molecular transfer in a biphasic system (water/ethyl acetate) are investigated using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations and coarse-grained models. The mesoscopic simulations show that the PIL generates stable spherical micelles in an aqueous environment at room temperature and has the selective characteristic (via a cationic-imidazolium mesh in the micellar core) to separate anionic molecules of a mixture of organic dyes (methyl orange and methyl violet). At high temperatures (≥low critical solution temperature (≈333 K)), the PIL micelles lose their thermodynamic stability via a cloud point, and the gradual insolubility of the PIL micelles in the aqueous environment promotes micellar shuttles towards the organic phase where the polymeric micellar corona is regenerated. All the transitory stages involving the selective ionic load process and maximum load capacity during micellar shuttle formation in the biphasic system are analysed in detail. Our theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental ones. The study is expected to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between selective ionic transfer and micellar shuttle in biphasic systems under the effect of temperature.