Thermo-switchable hydrophobic solvents formulated with weak acid and base for greener separation processes

Switchable solvents are changing properties when exposed to an external stimulus. As example, for thermomorphic multiphasic system (TMS), temperature changes can induce phase separations. Aqueous systems presented here formulated with a carboxylic acid (weak acid) and amphiphilic tertiary amine base). They show thermo-switchable hydrophobicity after separation, the weak base mainly found in organic while aqueous is mostly composed of water, up 99 wt%. The separation (cloud point) be tuned from 20 80 °C depending on choice acid: molar ratio. A collection saturated aliphatic acids benzoic derivatives have been investigated evaluate impact different physico-chemical cloud point. octanol/water partition coefficient (log P) acidic constant (pKa) were identified as key adjust temperature. Finally, illustration efficiency these remove chemical it has shown that % extraction anionic dye, methyl orange, could achieved most tested TMS.