Emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere is a major health concern for the World Health Organization (WHO). For instance, more than 4 million premature deaths are attributed yearly to outdoor air pollution, thus calling for advanced remediation techniques. Absorption systems using solvents are commonly used to remove air pollutants, yet efficiency is limited by a solvent property, which is either hydrophilic or hydrophobic. As a consequence, classical solvents are not able to capture both hydrophilic and hydrophobic contaminants. Therefore, we synthesized the following ionic liquids from choline chloride and fatty acids: hexylcholinium levulinate, octylcholinium levulinate, hexylcholinium lactate and octylcholinium lactate. Ionic liquids were then tested for absorption of toluene, dichloromethane (CH₂Cl₂) and methyl ethyl ketone. Ionic liquids were characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR, infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and thermal gravimetric analysis, density, viscosity and polarity. Vapor–liquid partition coefficients of VOC were determined for ionic liquids. We found that solvents were able to solubilize both hydrophobic and hydrophilic VOC. Moreover, no saturation was detected up to an initial VOC concentration of 3000 g/m³, whereas classical absorption processes usually involve gas streams containing VOC concentrations up to 1000 g/m³. Moreover, the solvent can be successfully recycled with unchanged capacity during five absorption–desorption cycles. Overall, our solvents appear promising for the treatment of industrial gaseous effluents.

大气中挥发性有机化合物（VOC）的排放是世界卫生组织（WHO）的主要健康问题。例如，每年有超过400万的过早死亡归因于室外空气污染，因此需要先进的补救技术。使用溶剂的吸收系统通常用于去除空气污染物，但是效率受到亲水或疏水的溶剂特性的限制。结果，传统溶剂既不能捕获亲水性污染物也不能捕获疏水性污染物。因此，我们从胆碱氯化物和脂肪酸合成了以下离子液体：己酰胆碱乙酰丙酸酯，辛基胆碱乙酰丙酸酯，乳酸己基胆碱酯和乳酸辛基胆碱酯。然后测试离子液体对甲苯，二氯甲烷（CH₂ Cl ₂）和甲基乙基酮。离子液体的特征在于¹ H和¹³ C NMR，红外光谱，差示扫描量热法和热重分析，密度，粘度和极性。测定了离子液体的VOC气液分配系数。我们发现溶剂能够溶解疏水性和亲水性VOC。此外，在初始VOC浓度为3000 g / m ^3之前，未检测到饱和，而经典的吸收过程通常涉及的VOC浓度高达1000 g / m ^3的气流。而且，溶剂可以在五个吸收-解吸循环中以不变的容量成功回收。总体而言，我们的溶剂似乎有望用于工业气态废水的处理。