The team of academics, PhD students and PostDoc researchers from the University of Leicester’s Department of Chemistry has received over €1m funding to develop and apply environmentally friendly solvents. The ionic liquids solvents they have developed provide a safe, non-toxic, alternative to harmful solutions and can act as “drop-in” replacement technology, that perform as well as, or even better than, existing processes.

Overseeing the project senior lecturer Dr Karl Ryder (right) said: “One of our aims is to improve the working environment for people within the manufacturing industry by replacing unpleasant acids or caustic processes with ionic liquids. The user experience is very similar for both and no additional equipment or training is required, but the user benefits from a more pleasant and safer working environment.”

The funding will drive forward the on-going programme of research in the Department that was started 4 and a half years ago by an EU project IONMET aimed to develop new ionic liquid solvent technologies to transform metal finishing.

The three new major projects are:-
POLYZION funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme worth a total of €3.5m with 9 University and Industrial partners. This project is to create an environmentally friendly and affordable rechargeable battery for electric vehicle applications. It will develop a more sustainable technology, light-weight, cheaper and more attainable as the batteries currently used are heavy, expensive and potentially environmentally harmful if damaged.

RECONIF uses ionic liquid solvents to extract metals from solid waste, instead of strong acids or caustic alkalis. The project focus is on recovering heavy metals eg nickel from domestic battery waste and funded by the EPSRC/ Technology Strategy Board.

ASPIS starts in 2010, to develop a new technology for surface treatment of the circuit boards in many electronic devices. Commercial processes currently in place are problematic, failures are expensive to industry. ASPIS will aim to provide an alternative method with funding also from the EU Seventh Framework Programme.

Dr Ryder says “The funding we have received will carry forward certain key promising aspects of work started with IONMET. Key aspects we will develop are the new battery technology and new surface finishing for circuit boards.

“The battery project is the most exciting for me, as it brings together two research themes I’ve had side by side for a long time, representing the culmination of two areas of work. I am confident it will be as good as it promises to be.

“It’s nice to be involved with both the academic side and the cutting edge of industrial processes. This represents a very challenging combination of fundamental and applied science.”

The three projects provide opportunity to apply ionic liquid technologies to the manufacturing industry, as a safer, more environmentally sustainable alternative to current commercially used methodologies.