We report on the use of protic ionic liquids, pILs, as solvents for the solubilisation and stabilization of viruses. We show that the shelf life of the pIL stabilized tobacco mosaic virus is significantly enhanced when compared to traditional phosphate buffer. This has new opportunities for the preparation, characterization and storage of viruses and virus based technologies.

We have shown that protic ionic liquids, pILs, are effective coagulation solvents for the regenerated of silk fibroin, RSF. We show that the choice of pIL has a dramatic effect on the composition of the RSF. Additionally the use of pILs as the coagulator eliminates the need for volatile organic solvents in silk processing.

Heavier group 2 (Mg, Ca) bis(trimethylsilyl)amides are catalysts for the formation of unsymmetrical diaminoboranes, [(R(2)N)BH(NR'(2))], by dehydrocoupling of amine boranes and protic amines; a process which is proposed to occur by a sequential metal-centred elimination-insertion-elimination mechanism.

A Cp*Ru-based bifunctional catalyst system (Cp* = η(5)-C(5)(CH(3))(5)) with a suitably-designed PN ligand (PN = chelating tertiary phosphine-protic amine ligand) has been developed for a regioselective lactonization of unsymmetrically substituted 1,4-diols, which may provide an expeditious access to a variety of lactone lignans.

In this communication, we present the ability of water and a protic ionic liquid, triethyl ammonium phosphate (TEAP) to act as refolding additives for the urea-induced chemical denaturated state of the two enzymes, α-chymotrypsin and succinylated Con A. We show that the enzymatic activity is regained and in certain circumstances enhanced.

The design of a new class of triazolium ion precatalysts incorporating protic substituents is described. These materials promote the enantioselective benzoin condensation of a range of aromatic aldehydes (1-62% ee). Catalyst evaluation studies strongly support the involvement of hydrogen bond donation by the catalyst in the stereocentre-forming step of the catalytic cycle.

Three diprotic ionic liquids (PILs) containing bis(2-hydroxyethyl) ammonium cations and citrate (DCi), lactate (DL), or salycilate (DSa) hydroxy/carboxylate anions were studied as lubricants for Ti6Al4V–sapphire contact. At room temperature, the neat PILs are non-Newtonian fluids, which show up to a 70% friction coefficient reduction with respect water. New aqueous developed using 1 wt.% additi...