The food and textile industries release considerable amounts of wastes that include numerous natural and synthetic compounds, and in particular organic dyes. In the case of textile industries, especially in areas outside of the US, dyes are often released directly into the environment through rivers and oceans with significant negative impacts on ecosystems. Food and beverage industries often discharge vivid colored dyes such as yellow and orange from fruits and other natural ingredients. The class of materials known as ionic liquids (ILs) have rapidly expanded in their applications due to their unique properties such as high solvating effects, low viscosity, and ability to be recycled for repeated uses. Many organic dyes in aqueous solutions form strong interactions and complexes with water-immiscible ILs, allowing the dyes to be removed from water at high efficiencies. Biphasic extraction processes allow us to understand how ILs complex with aqueous industrial dyes and increase their efficiency of removal, and can lead towards high recovery and recycling of both the dyes and the ILs for reuse, thus reducing the potential negative impact of industrial effluent.

Removal of industrial dyes from aqueous solution with ionic liquids

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.