Combinatorial discovery of small-molecule 1,2,3-triazolium ionic liquids exhibiting lower critical solution temperature phase transition

Both lower and upper critical solution temperature (LCST and UCST) systems are two typical phase behaviors of thermoresponsive materials with solvents, in which LCST is far less common than UCST. Recent studies on ionic liquids carrying LCST phase transitions have predominantly focused on quaternary ammonium- and phosphonium-based ionic salts. Based on the 1,2,3-triazole core structure assemblable by azide-alkyne cycloaddition click reaction, this work reports the combinatorial synthesis of 1,3,4-trialkylated 1,2,3-triazolium ionic liquids in three libraries with a total of 160 ionic liquids and demonstrates, for the first time, their values in temperature-switchable phase transition with water. In this work, the successful discovery of a new thermoresponsive ionic liquid b26, based on the structure-and-phase separation study of b8 and b9, perfectly exemplified the true value of the tunability of ionic liquid fine structures. For all 160 ionic liquids synthesized, 155 are liquid at room temperature and 22 room-temperature ionic liquids were found to exhibit thermoresponsive phase transitions having low T(c) values in water. To the best of our knowledge, this comprehensive study is the first report of small-molecule 1,2,3-triazolium ionic liquids that exhibit LCST property in water.