Professor of Physical Chemistry

Head of Department

B.Sc., (CNAA) Ph.D. (Southampton).

Tel: 0116 252 2087

email: apa1@le.ac.uk

Research Interests

Current research centres on the area of novel environmentally compatible solvents.

Room temperature ionic liquids:

We have recently developed a range of ionic compounds, which are fluid at room temperature. These ionic liquids are based on choline chloride (vitamin B4) which is produced on the Mtonne p.a. scale and hence these ionic liquids can be applied to large scale processes for the first time. A joint venture company has been set up involving the University of Leicester and Whyte Chemicals Ltd. This partnership allows fundamental and applied research to be carried out while providing the production, marketing and licensing capability of Britain's largest privately owned chemical company. This joint venture company (Scionix Ltd.) holds three worldwide patents that cover over a million ionic liquids and it has made 200kg batches of ten ionic liquids that it is selling internationally. This makes it the world's largest manufacturer of ionic liquids.

A number of applications are currently under development.

• Electrodeposition of chromium, zinc and various alloys: This is currently in the beta-test scale using 50 litre baths to coat hydraulic systems with chromium. The work is now the basis for a 4 year, 13M Euro Integrated Project involving 33 companies and universities
• Electropolishing: This project is funded by the DTI and allows a benign ionic liquid to be used in place of phosphoric acid/sulphuric acid mixtures. A 200 litre test facility has been constructed in Birmingham and extensive tests have shown that significant benefits can be obtained over aqueous acid technology.
• Ore processing: A process is under development to extract metals from ore samples using ionic liquids and recover the metals using electrodeposition. A spin-off process to recover Pt and Pd from spent car catalysts is being scaled up.
• Synthesis: We have investigated a wide variety of chemical reactions in ionic liquids and aim to develop the first large-scale production using an ionic liquid at Whyte's manufacturing site in Huddersfield.

In addition to these applied areas we are currently studying the fundamental aspects of solvation in these novel media to elucidate solubility and reaction mechanisms. The relationship between structure, polarity and phase behaviour is also under investigation and we are using hole theory to model physical properties such as viscosity and surface tension. We have recently used this new theory to develop less viscous ionic liquids by fluorination of the hydrogen bond donors.

Supercritical fluids:

We are primarily investigating the use of supercritical hydrofluorocarbons as solvents. We designed and built the sophisticated equipment necessary for operating at high pressures and temperatures and developed electrochemical sensors to measure solubility and follow rates of reactions in situ . We have characterised solvation in supercritical fluids and the effects of density on solute-solute interactions, most notably with ionic species. We completed the first comprehensive study of hydrogen bonding in supercritical fluids and these data are being used to interpret the pressure dependency of the product distributions for a variety of reactions. Our initial work was funded by the EPSRC, Ineos Fluor and Advanced Phytonic Ltd. We have been investigating reaction mechanism of Friedel Crafts, hydrogenation and metal catalysed polymerisation in scHFCs. We have also studied the formation of colloids such as emulsions and micelles in sc fluids. This is an unexplored area where we hope to make significant advances as clustering has important ramifications for product separation, reaction mechanism and solute solubility. We aim to characterise these colloids using quartz crystal microbalance, voltammetry, density and conductivity measurements and measure the effect of clustering/ local density on the above applications.

The formation of emulsions in supercritical difluoromethane

Link to Laboratory Website

Selected Publications

1. A. P. Abbott, and K. J. McKenzie, Electrodeposition of Metals using ionic Liquids, Phys.Chem.Chem.Phys. 2006 8,  4265-4279
2. A. P. Abbott, G. Capper, K. J. McKenzie and K. S. Ryder “Electropolishing of stainless steels in a choline chloride based ionic liquid: an electrochemical study with surface characterisation using SEM and atomic force microscopy.” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.  2006, 8, 4214-4221.
3. A. P. Abbott, R. C. Harris and K. S. Ryder “What is an ionic liquid? Application of Hole Theory to Define Ionic Liquids by their Transport Properties”  J. Phys. Chem. B, 111, (2007) 4910-4914
4. A. P. Abbott, G. Frisch and K. S. Ryder, Annu. Rep. Prog. Chem., Sect. A: Inorg. Chem., 2008, 102, 21-45
5. A. P. Abbott, P. M. Cullis, M. J. Gibson, R. C. Harris and E. Raven, “Extraction of glycerol from biodiesel into a eutectic based ionic liquid”  Green Chem., 2007, 9, 868
6. Electrodeposition of Metals from Ionic Liquids A. P. Abbott, F. Endres and D. MacFarlane  (Eds.) Wiley VCH 2007