Institute ChemTech – Presentation at the Swiss Green & Sustainable Chemistry Days 2019
Organized by the Swiss Chemical Society, the Swiss Green & Sustainable Chemistry Days 2019 focused on sustainable solutions to society’s big challenges and the contributions that chemical sciences can and must provide.
The talk presented past, actual and future work on the development and use of ionic liquids in the laboratories of the Institute ChemTech. In the first part Prof. Marti talked about ionic liquids as green solvents for the synthesis of fine chemicals, the application of ionic liquids in biocatalysis to improve reactivity and selectivity of enzymes, and the use of ionic liquids in carbon dioxide capture as well as their application in a sustainable and carbon-neutral approach to produce methanol by hydrogenation of CO2-based ionic liquids by using hydrogen from solar water splitting. The second part discussed the development and application of ionic liquids as engineering liquids, like their use as lubricants or as electrolyte in thermoelectric generators.
The presentation gave a good overview of the research on ionic liquids at the Institute ChemTech, which was initiated more than 10 years ago by Professor Vanoli, Professor Aebischer, Professor Naef, and Professor Marti.
