Synthesis of polymeric ionic liquids using a photochemical polymerization process

1. A method of making a photo-initiated polymeric ionic liquid (P-PIL) coated support, comprising:

i) mixing at least one ionic liquid (IL) monomer with at least one photo-initiator;

ii) at least partially coating a support with the mixture of step i), wherein the support is a fiber; and

iii) exposing the coated support of step ii) to UV light to form a photo-initiated polymeric ionic liquid (P-PIL) coated support;

wherein at least a portion of a surface of the support is functionalized by etching with a vinyl substituent prior to coating with the IL monomer mixture.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including adding at least one cross-linker to the mixture of step i).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein about 2% to about 4% (m/v) of photo-initiator is added to the mixture.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coated support of step ii) is exposed to UV light in the range of about 250-240 nm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the coated support of step ii) is exposed to UV light for a time period of about 2 hours.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the P-PIL is synthesized by a polymerization reaction involving one or more functional groups attached to an aromatic ring of a cationic component.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photo-initiator comprises 2-hydroxy-2-methylpropiophenone (HMPP).

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the degree of crosslinking is modified to control the consistency of the formed polymer with greater degrees of crosslinking resulting in a more rigid coating.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the P-PIL is synthesized using a cross-linking reaction.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the degree of crosslinking is modified to influence either the mechanism of portioning or the overall selectivity for targeted analyte molecules.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photo-initiated polymeric ionic liquid (P-PIL) comprises:

at least one cationic component comprising an ionic liquid (IL), and

one or more anionic components, wherein the anionic components can be the same or different.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photo-initiated polymeric ionic liquid (P-PIL) is a c-P-PIL comprising:

at least one ionic liquid comprising an anionic component, and

one or more mobile cationic components, wherein the cationic components can be the same or different.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the cationic component comprises one or more imidazolium-based monomers selected from the group consisting of functionalized imidazolium, pyridinium, phosphonium, triazolium, pyrrolidinium, and ammonium.

14. A P-PIL coated support made by the method of claim 1 , wherein the photo-initiated polymeric ionic liquid (P-PIL) comprises:

at least one cationic component comprising an ionic liquid (IL), and

one or more anionic components, wherein the anionic components can be the same or different.

15. The P-PIL coated support of claim 14 , wherein the cationic component comprises at least one or more of: quaternary ammonium, protonated tertiary amine, thionium, phosphonium, arsonium, carboxylate, sulfate or sulfonate groups which may be substituted or unsubstituted, saturated or unsaturated, linear, branched, cyclic or aromatic.

16. The P-PIL coated support of claim 14 , which is polymerized to form linear polymers and/or cross-linked polymers, using varying ratios of monocationic/dicationic/tricationic/multicationic crosslinking molecules.