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Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates

Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates

Published on: February 15, 2016

Designing Ternary Chiral DES to Enhance Enantioselectivity

Hayden Teague¹, Ashton Lake¹, Todd A Hopkins¹

¹Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Butler University, 4600 Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana 46208, United States.

|November 17, 2025

Summary

Chiral ternary deep eutectic solvents (DES) offer tunable properties and enhanced enantioselectivity. Ternary DES demonstrated superior performance compared to binary systems in chiral recognition applications.

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Supramolecular Chemistry
Chiral Technologies

Background:

Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are tunable solvent systems with potential applications in various chemical processes.
Ternary DES offer greater flexibility in property tuning compared to binary DES.
Chiral solvents are crucial for enantioselective applications, such as chiral recognition and separation.

Purpose of the Study:

To synthesize and characterize chiral ternary deep eutectic solvents (DES) using tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOABr), tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBABr), and chiral esters ((R)-ethyl mandelate or (R)-methyl-(2R)-2-hydroxy-3-phenylpropanoate).
To investigate the physical properties (density, viscosity, conductivity, polarity) and liquid range of these ternary DES.
To evaluate the enantioselectivity of the synthesized ternary DES using circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) spectroscopy.

Main Methods:

Solid-liquid equilibrium measurements to determine the liquid range of ternary DES.
Physical property measurements including density, viscosity, conductivity, and polarity.
Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) spectroscopy to assess enantioselectivity with a luminescent lanthanide complex.

Main Results:

Ternary DES mixtures of TOABr:TBABr:(R)-MHPP and TOABr:TBABr:(R)-EM exhibited varying liquid ranges at room temperature.
Physical properties of the ternary DES were systematically measured and compared.
The synthesized chiral ternary DES demonstrated higher enantioselectivity compared to their binary counterparts.

Conclusions:

Chiral ternary DES based on ammonium bromides and chiral esters can be successfully synthesized and characterized.
Ternary DES provide enhanced tunability and improved enantioselectivity for chiral recognition applications.
These findings highlight the potential of chiral ternary DES as advanced media for enantioselective processes.

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