Choline-amino acid ionic liquids: past and recent achievements about the structure and properties of these really “green” chemicals

The structure of choline-amino acid ionic liquids, atoxic task-specific solvents composed of materials originated from renewable feedstocks, is reviewed in this letter. The varied and strong interactions that these liquids are capable of establishing are largely dependent on their structure, and confer them outstanding solvating properties with respect to a large number of different solutes. Among the experimental methods capable of yielding structural insight, the Energy Dispersive version of X-Ray diffraction, that uses the Bremsstrahlung radiation of the X-Ray tube, is a technique very well suited to investigate these liquid systems. The diffraction spectra of five choline-amino acid ionic liquids, recently measured, are reported and discussed; in particular, the presence or absence of the medium-range order prepeak is related to the presence of polar groups within the amino acid sidechain, that destroy the hydrophobic interactions between aliphatic chains. In the final section, a recent example of choline-amino acid ionic liquids as for ancient papers preservation, and two other interesting results are discussed at the end.