The Future of Green Chemistry: Evolution and Recent Trends in Deep Eutectic Solvents Research

Deep eutectic solvents are a sustainable and chemically tunable class of solvents formed by strong hydrogen bonding between a hydrogen bond acceptor and a hydrogen bond donor. Their extreme versatility has established deep eutectic solvents in ten key applied areas, including the green extraction of bioactive compounds, CO2 capture, electrochemistry, and the catalytic media. Research is shifting towards highly innovative frontier trends, such as the role of deep eutectic solvents in dynamic covalent chemistry and as templates for advanced photocatalytic nanomaterials. Other innovative directions include artificial organelles for bioremediation, thermoacoustic deep eutectic solvents for smart drug delivery, and their use as multifunctional interfaces for 2D materials. The future of deep eutectic solvents lies in process engineering and scale-up, supported by computational chemistry, confirming their position as a central pillar of the circular economy. This trajectory marks the transition of deep eutectic solvents from laboratory curiosities to a scalable industrial reality.