Understanding the miscibility behavior of ionic
liquid (IL) / monomer, IL / polymer and IL / nanoparticle mixtures is critical
for the use of ILs as green solvents in polymerization processes, and to
rationalize recent observations concerning the superior solubility of some
proteins in ILs when compared to standard solvents. In this work, the most
relevant results obtained in terms of a three-component Flory-Huggins theory
concerning the “Extra Solvent Power, ESP” of ILs when compared to traditional
non-ionic solvents for monomeric solutes (case I), linear polymers (case II)
and globular nanoparticles (case III) are presented. Moreover, useful ESP maps
are drawn for the first time for IL mixtures corresponding to case I, II and
III. Finally, a potential pathway to improve the miscibility of non-ionic
polymers in ILs is also proposed.
