This paper aims to investigate the suitability of ionic liquids to be used as a co-solvent along with a few common solvents which are dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), acetonitrile, and water as the primary solvent to dissolve polyetheretherketone (PEEK). PEEK is an excellent colourless polymer with top-notch mechanical properties. Currently, there is no solvent capable of dissolving PEEK. Therefore, with ionic liquids (ILs) promising performance as solvents to various material including polymers which has been stated in previous literature, it is assumed that ILs would behave as an excellent solvent for PEEK. In this study, three different ionic liquids were chosen which are tetramethylammonium chloride (TMACL), tetramethylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TMAHFP), and tetramethylammonium sulphate (TMAS). PEEK was exposed to these solvent mixtures at ambient temperature and 50 °C for one hour. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to determine the functional group present in the samples. Results highlighted that PEEK did dissolve in DMSO/TMACL and DMSO/TMAHFP at ambient temperature. As the temperature increased to 50 °C, PEEK dissolution decreased in both mixtures. However, the opposite was observed for DMSO/TMAS. Finally, it was found that water and acetonitrile were not able to dissolve PEEK even with the addition of ILs.
Acidic ionic liquids are a subset of ionic liquids where the cation or anion possess acidic properties with huge applications in various fields. Here we describe environmentally safe and highly efficient conjugate addition of aromatic and aliphatic amines to α, β-unsaturated compounds in the presence of novel acidic ionic liquids. The acidic ionic liquid catalyst was prepared by combining benzyl chloride with 2-(dimethylamino) ethanol and SnCl2 in a simpler manner. The resulting acidic ionic liquid was characterized using SEM, EDS and FTIR spectroscopy. In the presence of ionic liquids, a wide variety of amines undergo facile conjugate addition to α, β-unsaturated compounds affording the corresponding β-amino compounds in good to excellent yields (72–97 %), shorter reaction times (1–4 h) and mild reaction conditions (60 °C). Furthermore, the study demonstrated the sustainability of the process by showcasing that the acidic ionic liquids could be reclaimed and reused for up to five cycles without compromising their catalytic effectiveness.
This work aims to evaluate the anti-corrosion potential of ethyl dimethyl propylammonium bis (trifluoromethyl sulfonyl) imide (EDMPA-TFSI)-ionic liquid on AA3003 alloy in 0.5 M HCl solution in the presence and absence of potassium iodide at ambient and elevated temperatures. The corrosion inhibition of AA3003 alloy by EDMPA-TFSI in the presence of potassium iodide was evaluated using hydrogen evolution measurements at 303 K and 333 K. The results show that in the absence of potassium iodide, EDMPA-TFSI decelerates AA3003 corrosion in an acidic medium with a maximum inhibition efficiency of 93.2 % and 90.5 % obtained at 303 K and 333 K respectively. In the presence of potassium iodide, 94.7 % and 89.8 % inhibition efficiencies were obtained at 303 K and 333 K, respectively. This adsorption behavior is concordant with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the corrosion process in the presence of EDMPA-TFSI shows consistency with first-order reaction kinetics. New information on the application of EDMPA-TFSI as a workable corrosion inhibitor is provided herein.

