Wednesday, 2 July 2025 11:00am – 12:00pm

This seminar will be delivered in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 4

Speaker: Associate Professor Cameron Weber

Host: Dr Alexander Yuen

Title: Structure, Reactivity and Separations in Non-Volatile Alternative Solvents

Abstract
A long-standing challenge in green chemistry has been developing alternatives to the hazardous, volatile organic solvents that are ubiquitous in chemical processes. Alternative solvents that have been proposed include non-volatile liquids such as ionic liquids, low melting salts, and deep eutectic solvents, low melting mixtures. In addition to overcoming the issues of solvent volatility, these liquids possess a unique array of intermolecular interactions, providing potential new opportunities for influencing reaction outcomes.^{1, 2} In particular, ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents form well-defined amphiphilic nanostructures, localised polar and apolar regions, although the consequences of these structures on chemical reactivity remain poorly understood. The lack of volatility of these solvents also creates challenges for the separation and isolation of solutes including reaction products.

This presentation will outline work we have undertaken to understand the nanostructures of ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents and the effect of these nanostructures on reactivity.^3-5 Finally, approaches we have been developing to enable the more straightforward isolation of reaction products and other solutes from non-volatile solvents will be discussed.^{6, 7}

References

• Hayes, G. G. Warr, R. Atkin Chem. Rev. 2015, 115, 6357-6426.
• T. Keaveney, R. S. Haines, J. B. Harper Pure Appl. Chem. 2017, 89, 745-757.
• Yalcin, I. D. Welsh, E. L. Matthewman, S. P. Jun, M. Mckeever-Willis, I. Gritcan, T. L. Greaves, C. C. Weber Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2020, 22, 11593-11608.
• L. Matthewman, B. Kapila, M. L. Grant, C. C. Weber Chem. Commun. 2022, 58, 13572-13575.
• K. Kahlon, E. L. Matthewman, M. El Mohamad, T. L. Greaves, C. C. Weber J. Phys. Chem. B 2024, 128, 4566-4575.
• D. Patel, C. Brunschwig, M. Robertson, R. Murray, A. Thumm, L. Raymond, S. J. Hill, C. C. Weber Ind. Crops Prod. 2024, 209, 117966.
• L. Matthewman, J. Sperry, C. C. Weber ChemistryOpen 2025, e202500094.

Bio
Cameron completed his BSc(Adv)(Hons) and PhD at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Maschmeyer and Prof. Tony Masters before postdoctoral positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Allan Myerson and Imperial College London with Prof. Tom Welton, where he also received a Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship. He began his independent research career as a lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology in 2017 before moving to the University of Auckland in 2019 where he is now Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Green Chemical Science. His research focuses on understanding solvent effects in alternative solvents such as ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents and switchable solvents; and exploiting these for applications in green chemistry.