Exploration of Choline Chloride Based Type II and Type III Deep Eutectic Solvents: A Computational and Experimental Approach

Abstract Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) of choline chloride with citric acid (CACC), Maleic acid (MACC) and Magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MAGCC) were synthesized in 1 : 1 molar ratio and investigated experimentally and computationally. For the computational study, density functional theory (DFT) calculation with B3LYP/6‐31 (+, +) G (d,p) level of theory for MACC and CACC and at B3LYP/SDD basis set for MAGCC was employed and the FT‐IR spectroscopy was used for experimental evaluation. For understanding the orientation of bonds and hydrogen bonding present in DESs geometrically optimized structures were used. Through frontier molecular orbital (FMO) theory and HOMO−LUMO values and various quantum chemical parameters, viz., ionization potential (IP), electron affinities (EA), electro negativity (χ), chemical potential (μ), global softness (σ) and hardness (η), electrophilicity index (ω) were calculated for all DESs. These computational values made it clear that MAGCC is the most stable among the three DESs due to the high value of global hardness (η) (3.291 eV) and HOMO−LUMO energy gap (E gap ) (6.582 eV) and lowest value of softness (σ) (0.152 eV), CACC shows the moderate values (η=2.452, E gap =4.905 and σ=0.204 eV). While MACC is found to be the least stable and most reactive among three DESs with values of η, E gap and σ, 1.970, 3.940 and 0.254 eV, respectively. Furthermore, MESP analysis gives an idea about the electrophilic and nucleophilic surface region of DESs. This study will give valuable information for a better understanding of DESs and the applicability of computational calculations in the future.