Deep
eutectic solvents (DESs) are lately expanding their use to
more demanding applications upon aqueous dilution thanks to the preservation
of the most appealing properties of the original DESs while overcoming
some of their most important drawbacks limiting their performance,
like viscosity. Both experimental and theoretical works have studied
this dilution regime, the so-called “water-in-DES” system,
at near-to stoichiometric amounts to the original DES. Herein, we
rather studied the high-dilution range of the “water-in-DES”
system looking for enhanced performance because of the interesting
properties (a further drop of viscosity) and cost (water is cheap)
that it offers. In particular, we found that, in the “water-in-DES”
system of a ternary DES composed of resorcinol, urea and choline chloride
(e.g., RUChClnW, where n represents mol of water
per mole of ternary DES), the tetrahedral structure of water
was distorted as a consequence of its incorporation, as an additional
hydrogen bond donor or hydrogen bond acceptor, into the hydrogen bond
complexes formed among the original DES components . DSC confirmed
the formation of a new eutectic, with a melting point below that of
its respective components, the original ternary DES and water. This
depression in the melting point was also observed in the same regime
of reline and malicine aqueous dilutions, thus suggesting the universality
of this simple procedure (i.e., water addition to reach the high-dilution
range of the “water-in-DES” system) to obtain deeper
eutectics eventually providing enhanced performances and lower cost.