Water Harvesting by Thermoresponsive Ionic Liquids: A Molecular Dynamics Study of the Water Absorption Kinetics and of the Role of Nanostructuring.

ABSTRACT: Ionic liquids (ILs) whose water solutions are thermoresponsive provide an appealing route to harvest water from the atmosphere at an energy cost that can be accessed by solar heating. IL/water solutions that present a lower critical solution temperature (LCST), i.e., demix upon increasing temperature, represent the most promising choice for this task since they could absorb vapor during the night when its saturation is highest and release liquid water during the day. The kinetics of water absorption at the surface and the role of nanostructuring in this process have been investigated by atomistic molecular dynamics simulations for the ionic liquid tetrabutyl phosphonium 2,4-dimethylbenzenesulfonate whose LCST in water occurs at T_c = 36 °C for solutions of 50-50 wt % compo

SUBMITTER: Forero-Martinez NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10291554 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature