Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Todd Hopkins

Abstract

The synthesis and fluorescent analysis of chiral light emitting ionic liquids made from lanthanide-doped chiral amino acid ionic liquids is described in this thesis. The ionic liquids were composed of tetrabutylammonium (TBA) cation with enantiomers of the amino acids valine, proline, and aspartate as anionic counterions. These ionic liquids of varying amino acid composition were doped with europium trifluoromethanesulfonate (triflate) and analyzed by circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). The sign of the CPL signal corresponded to the handedness of the amino acids in the ionic liquids. Europium triflate concentration dependent CPL in both [TBA][Val] and [TBA][L-Pro] ionic liquids was measured from 5 to 30 millimolal. Although the effect of concentration on the europium environment was inconclusive, CPL spectra compared across ionic liquids indicated that ionic liquid properties play an important role.

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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