Purification or work-up on ionic liquids by means of adsorptive separation processes

1. A process for purifying a mixture of at least one ionic liquid and at least one impurity,

wherein the at least one impurity is a substance having a vapor pressure in the mixture that prohibits complete removal of the substance from the mixture by distillation, and/or

wherein the at least one impurity is a substance that interacts with the at least one ionic liquid so as to prohibit complete removal of the substance from the mixture by distillation,

said process comprising removing the at least one impurity from the mixture by continuous chromatographic process, and obtaining the resultant at least one ionic liquid.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the separation is carried out by means of ion exchange.

3. A process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein water, methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol or isopropanol or a mixture thereof is used as solvent.

4. A process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein reversed phase silica gels, resins, ion exchangers, zeolites, aluminum oxides or activated carbon are used as stationary phases.

5. A process according to claim, wherein the at least one impurity is a polar compound.

6. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one impurity is a substance having a vapor pressure of less than about 10 mbar in the mixture at room temperature.

7. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one impurity is a substance having a vapor pressure of less than 1 mbar in the mixture at room temperature.

8. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one impurity is a polymer that has no measurable vapor pressure in the mixture at room temperature.

9. An adsorption separation process for removing an impurity from a mixture comprising an ionic liquid and the impurity,

wherein the impurity is a substance having a vapor pressure in the mixture that prohibits complete removal of the substance from the mixture by distillation, and/or

wherein the impurity is a substance that interacts with the ionic liquid so as to prohibit complete removal of the substance from the mixture by distillation,

wherein the ionic liquid has an anion and cation, the cation comprising at least one five- or six-membered heterocycle containing at least one phosphorus or nitrogen atom; and

wherein the process comprises a first step of contacting the contaminated ionic liquid with a resin, and a second step of separating the purified ionic liquid from the resin.

10. The separation process of claim 9 , wherein the resin is at least one of an ion exchange resin and an adsorption resin.

11. The separation process of claim 9 , wherein the separation is carried out by chromatography.

12. The separation process of claim 9 , further comprising a step of removing low boiling compounds by evaporation.

13. The separation process of claim 9 , wherein water, methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, isopropanol or a mixture thereof is used as solvent.

14. The separation process of claim 9 , wherein the anion is a halide.

15. A process as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the impurity is a substance having a vapor pressure of less than about 10 mbar in the mixture at room temperature.

16. An adsorption separation process for removing at least one impurity from a contaminated ionic liquid,

wherein the at least one impurity is a substance having a vapor pressure in a mixture comprising the at least one impurity and the at least one ionic liquid that prohibits complete removal of the substance from the mixture by distillation, and/or

wherein the at least one impurity is a substance that interacts with the at least one ionic liquid in a mixture comprising the at least one impurity and the at least one ionic liquid so as to prohibit complete removal of the substance from the mixture by distillation,

which process comprises

providing the contaminated ionic liquid by

(a) by separating volatile components from a mixture comprising the ionic liquid, the volatile components and the at least one impurity, by means of evaporation or rectification, and/or

(b) separating non-polar components from a mixture comprising the ionic liquid, said the non-polar components and the at least one impurity, by means of extraction with a non-polar organic solvent,

removing the at least one impurity from the contaminated ionic liquid by adsorptive separation, and

obtaining the resultant at least one ionic liquid.

17. A process as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the at least one impurity has a vapor pressure of less than about 10 mbar at room temperature in a mixture comprising the at least one impurity and the at least one ionic liquid.