Water in Solutions of Chaotropic and Kosmotropic Salts: A Differential Scanning Calorimetry Investigation

The use of aqueous phase separations via aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) has been widely explored in the recent decades. For wider and more “intelligent” applications, it is important to look below the surface and study these systems thoroughly at a fundamental level. Two important questions still unsolved are how do polymers and ions of different types organize water (if they in fact they do so) and how does it affect the separation of phases? In the present work, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to relate ABS phase diagrams and the behavior of water in aqueous solutions containing kosmotropic salts (K3PO4or (NH4)2SO4), a chaotropic ionic liquid ([C4mim]Cl), or a polymer (PEG-2000), all of which are reported components of ABS, and their mixtures. Additional DSC transitions were observed for the two classes of salts which could be assigned based on the fundamental differences between their interactions with water, suggesting that it is the differences in the abilities of kosmotropic and chaotropic salts to interact with water which result in the phase separation phenomena observed. The DSC measurements of solutions of PEG-2000 and (NH4)2SO4indicate that aqueous solutions of PEG-2000 supercool and potentially enter a glassy state that exhibits devitrification upon heating. The devitrified state exhibits a clear eutectic with water. Mixtures of the polymer and salt continue to exhibit all the features observed for the pure components. These results suggest that the mixtures are phase separated and consist of largely separate concentrated solutions of PEG-2000 and (NH4)2SO4, indicating an entropy-driven phase separation. The DSC analysis of these systems further refines the understanding of kosmotropic and chaotropic solutes into more specific phenomena for each compound. This work suggests that DSC can be used to understand the role of each salt/component in ABS.