Design, synthesis, and solution behaviour of small polyamines as switchable water additives

Sean M Mercer, Tobias Robert, Daniel V Dixon, Chien-Shun Chen, Zahra Ghoshouni, Jitendra Rameshlal Harjani, Soran Jahangiri, Gilles H Peslherbe, Philip G Jessop

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

60 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The practice of adding salt to water to induce salting out of contaminants or to break emulsions and suspensions is generally avoided industrially because of the expense of the necessary treatment of the salty water afterwards. However, the use of switchable water, an aqueous solvent with switchable ionic strength, allows for reversible generation and elimination of salts in aqueous solution, through the introduction and removal of CO 2. In the effort to improve the efficiency of these switchable salts, a physical study modeling their reactivity and solution behaviour has been performed, resulting in a set of design principles for future switchable water additives. The resulting polyamines synthesized using this template show the highest efficiency recorded for a switchable water additive.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)832 - 839
Number of pages8
JournalGreen Chemistry
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes

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