This paper is a collaboration between researchers at IU South Bend and Murray State University. IU South Bend coauthors are our organic chemistry professor, Dr. Kasey Clear, and chemistry major Taylor Boyd-Becker who was awarded a SMART summer research fellowship. The work involved a versatile route to synthesize ionic liquids derived from carbamates (also known as urethanes) using CDI (1,1′-carbonyldiimidazole), a less hazardous alternative to isocyanates and phosgene. CDI is a very interesting molecule (see the image above) which uses a carbonyl group (C=O) to link two five-membered aromatic heterocycles. Ionic liquids are very interesting because they are liquid at room temperature (we aren't talking about melting something like table salt) and they have almost no vapor pressure (they are non-volatile). The ionic liquids prepared were also characterized in terms of density, viscosity, conductivity, and thermal properties. Future work will study the ability of these materials and their polymeric forms to absorb carbon dioxide as a possible method of carbon capture to combat combustion emissions.
