Professor Doug MacFarlane

http://www.chem.monash.edu.au/ionicliquids/

Professor Doug MacFarlane leads the Monash Ionic Liquids Group at Monash University.  He is also the program leader of the Energy Program in the Australian Centre for Electromaterials Science. He was a PhD graduate from Professor Austen Angell’s group at Purdue in 1983 and after postdocs in France and New Zealand took up an academic position at Monash.  He has published more than 400 papers and patents including papers in Science, Nature and Nature Materials.  These have attracted more than 7000 citations to date.   Professor MacFarlane was recently awarded an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship to extend his work on Ionic Liquids.  He was elected to the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2007.

Ionic Liquids: Applications in the Electro- and Bio- Sciences

Douglas R. MacFarlane

Australian Centre for Electromaterials Science
 and
 Centre for Green Chemistry

Monash University,
 Victoria, Australia

Ionic liquids are simply organic salts that have melting point below 100°C.  As liquid salts they offer a range of solvency properties distinctly different from normal molecular solvents.   In addition to this, they are often very stable - thermally, chemically and electrochemically. They have thus found application in a wide variety of contexts from green chemistry to electrochemistry and more recently in the biochemical and biosciences. 

By way of example, they have been shown to be very useful in the electrowinning and electro-refining of metals and semiconductors and as electrolyte solvents for batteries and solar cells. Their electrochemical and thermal properties have led to the development of applications in corrosion protection and in lubrication. They can also be used as novel stabilising solvents for DNA and proteins, the stability of the bio-macromolecule being much enhanced both with respect to thermal denaturation and also chemical degradation. Recent work has shown that many medicinally active compounds can be ionic liquids when combined with an appropriate counter-ion opening up a huge range of new, and in some cases dual active, pharmaceuticals. 

This talk will survey these fields and discuss future directions.

Selected references:

1. Phosphonium-Based Ionic Liquids: An Overview.  K. J. Fraser and D. R. MacFarlane, Aust. J. Chem., 2009, 62, 309-321.
2.   Ionic liquid materials for the electrochemical challenges of the future M. Armand, F. Endres D. R. MacFarlane, H. Ohno, B. Scrosati Nature Materials, 2009, 8, 621-629
3. Use of ionic liquids in electrochemical devices. W. Lu, D. R. MacFarlane, et al.  Science 297 983-987 (2002).
4. Liquids intermediate between "molecular" and "ionic" liquids: Liquid Ion Pairs? K. Fraser, D.R. MacFarlane et al Chem. Commun., 2007, 3817-3819.
5. Lewis Base Ionic Liquids, D.R MacFarlane, et al,  Chemical Commun 1905 (2006).
6. Ionic liquids in electrochemical devices and processes: managing interfacial Electrochemistry. D. R. MacFarlane, et al, Acc. Chem. Res., 2007, 40, 1165-1173.

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