Partitioning of Vanillin in Aqueous Two-Phase Systems Formed by Cholinium Chloride and K3PO4

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, the partitioning of food and pharmaceutical materials in ionic liquid-based aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) has attracted the attention of researchers to itself as a new approach. A new type of these aqueous two-phase systems is based on cholinium chloride. Cholinium chloride is a type of vitamin B, which is an appropriate and biocompatible ionic liquid (IL) for the processes of the extraction and separation in the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, with respect to the effective development of aqueous two-phase systems in vanillin separation, an aqueous two-phase system containing cholinium chloride and potassium phosphate salt has been used. The effect of the variables such as the temperature, salt weight fractions, ionic liquid weight fractions, and vanillin concentration on the partitioning coefficient of vanillin was evaluated. The results indicated that by increasing the salt weight fraction and decreasing the cholinium chloride weight fraction, the partition coefficient of vanillin increased. Nevertheless, in all stages the vanillin showed a tendency to migrate toward the ionic liquid-rich phase. The recovery percentage of vanillin showed that the cholinium chloride-based systems have the ability to improve the vanillin recovery in the ionic liquid-rich phase.