Trendalert Deep Eutectic Solvents

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) were initially treated as the second generation of Ionic Liquids (IL), however DES have lower production costs and environmental impacts. Hydrophobic natural DES are particularly useful for water treatment applications. Hydrophobic DES consist of a hydrophobic hydrogen bond acceptor, combined with a hydrogen bond donor, such as alcohol or carboxylic acid, with long alkyl chains. Since 2015, hydrophobic DES were manufactured and successfully applied in water for the extraction of micropollutants, membrane processes and as surface modifiers; all reporting improved performance. Most reported work refers to the microextraction of contaminants, therefore performed at analytical level. Applications to water treatment processes, as membrane processes, adsorption or advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are currently performed at lab-scale. Depending on the DES applied, discharges of halide ions (chloride and bromide ions) may occur. Low Average High Comments Impact Certainty Figure 1- Deep Eutectic Solvents for extraction of Bisphenol-A in water (Source: graphical abstract in Florindo et al, 2020).