Separation of fission products based on ionic liquids: Task-specific ionic liquids containing an aza-crown ether fragment

A new class of task-specific ionic liquids (TSILs) based on the covalent attachment of imidazolium cations to a monoaza-crown ether fragment has been synthesized and characterized. The efficacy of these TSILs for the biphasic extraction of Cs+ and Sr2+ from aqueous solutions has been evaluated. The extraction properties of these TSILs can be influenced by the structures of the covalently attached imidazolium cations, which highlight the possibilities to enhance or tune the selectivities of crown ethers toward target ionic species through the covalent coupling with the imidazolium cations.