Monohydroxylated cucurbit[6]uril was prepared for the first time through the controlled oxidation of CB[6] in the presence of a tailor-made bisimidazolium guest, as verified by (1)H NMR, ESI-MS and X-ray crystallography. Further chemical modification of monohydroxylated CB[6] was also readily achieved.

A modified UNIFAC–VISCO group contribution method was developed for the correlation and prediction of viscosity of ionic liquids as a function of temperature at 0.1 MPa. In this original approach, cations and anions were regarded as peculiar molecular groups. The significance of this approach comes from the ability to calculate the viscosity of mixtures of ionic liquids as well as pure ionic liquids. Binary interaction parameters for selected cations and anions were determined by fitting the experimental viscosity data available in literature for selected ionic liquids. The temperature dependence on the viscosity of the cations and anions were fitted to a Vogel–Fulcher–Tamman behavior. Binary interaction parameters and VFT type fitting parameters were then used to determine the viscosity of pure and mixtures of ionic liquids with different combinations of cations and anions to ensure the validity of the prediction method. Consequently, the viscosities of binary ionic liquid mixtures were then calculated by using this prediction method. In this work, the viscosity data of pure ionic liquids and of binary mixtures of ionic liquids are successfully calculated from 293.15 K to 363.15 K at 0.1 MPa. All calculated viscosity data showed excellent agreement with experimental data with a relative absolute average deviation lower than 1.7%.

The viscosity of ionic liquids (ILs) has been modeled as a function of temperature and at atmospheric pressure using a new method based on the UNIFAC–VISCO method. This model extends the calculations previously reported by our group (see Zhao et al. J. Chem. Eng. Data 2016, 61, 2160–2169) which used 154 experimental viscosity data points of 25 ionic liquids for regression of a set of binary interaction parameters and ion Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann (VFT) parameters. Discrepancies in the experimental data of the same IL affect the quality of the correlation and thus the development of the predictive method. In this work, mathematical gnostics was used to analyze the experimental data from different sources and recommend one set of reliable data for each IL. These recommended data (totally 819 data points) for 70 ILs were correlated using this model to obtain an extended set of binary interaction parameters and ion VFT parameters, with a regression accuracy of 1.4%. In addition, 966 experimental viscosity data points for 11 binary mixtures of ILs were collected from literature to establish this model. All the binary data consist of 128 training data points used for the optimization of binary interaction parameters and 838 test data points used for the comparison of the pure evaluated values. The relative average absolute deviation (RAAD) for training and test is 2.9% and 3.9%, respectively.

The host-guest chemistry between a series of 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide ([C(n)mim]Br) guests and the macrocyclic host molecule cucurbit[6]uril (CB[6]) in an aqueous system is systematically studied in neutral aqueous media. Both 1D and 2D NMR experiments in conjunction with isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) unveil the binding characteristics of the host-guest interaction. Solution binding constants (K(a)) up to 10(5) M(-1) are measured directly. Additionally, this [C(n)mim]Br-CB[6] interaction was found to significantly increase the solubility of CB[6] in neutral water, in some cases by at least four orders of magnitude. From these studies, a detailed host-guest binding model has been constructed and is fully discussed. In this model, the delocalized positive charge on the imidazolium ring becomes partially localized on either one of the nitrogen atoms upon complexation with CB[6]. Localization of the positive charge is directly related to the length of the "1-alkyl" chain on the imidazolium ring, which causes an induced local dipole subsequently allowing for an ion-dipole interaction with the carbonyl portal of CB[6].

Cucurbit[6]uril was dissolved through encapsulation of an imidazolium-based ionic liquid guest in a pure water environment and the dissolution ability could be tuned by augmenting the imidazolium structure.