Aline Zambom Coelho

Aline Zambom completed her bachelor's (2020) and master's (2022) degrees in chemical engineering at Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (IPB). As a trainee researcher at CIMO - Centro de Investigação de Montanha, and during her master's degree, she worked on determining thermodynamic parameters to analyze the potential of certain ionic liquids as separation agents in fuel and terpene processing. FAline Zambom presently has two published articles. She took part in five events, giving two oral presentation and four poster presentations. In addition, Aline has two years of research experience, during which she was able to develop her skills in: a) inverse gas chromatography for terpene separation; b) improved terpenoids solubility with the addition of hydrotropes; and c) biomolecules solubility tests. She is now a p.h.D student in Chemical Engineering (University of Aveiro), funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), focusing on the search for green solvents.

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Chemical Engineering, Process Chemistry and Technology, Nature and Landscape Conservation

Scopus Publications

Evaluation of Ionic Liquids for the Sustainable Fractionation of Essential Oils
Sérgio M. Vilas-Boas, Aline Zambom Coelho, Mónia A. R. Martins, João A. P. Coutinho, Olga Ferreira, and Simão P. Pinho
American Chemical Society (ACS)
: Fractionation of terpenes from natural complex matrices is economically attractive due to the wide use of these compounds in the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, the potentialities of ionic liquids (ILs), and their mixtures, as separation agents in the fractionation of essential oils, were assessed through experimental and modeling approaches. Inverse gas chromatography was used to investigate solute − solvent interactions, and the COSMO-RS predictive model was applied to describe the experimental data and to search for other potential ILs by selecting the appropriate cation − anion combination. Both the experimental and predicted approaches demonstrate that chloride-based ILs are very good options for fractionating essential oils containing hydrogen-bond donor monoterpenoids. In particular, the experimental and COSMO-RS screenings suggest that [P 6,6,6,14 ]Cl gives the best performance for the separation of the main components present in citrus, mentha, and basil essential oils. The results gathered herein allow a deep understanding of terpene-IL interactions, and support the prediction of the ILs performance in the extraction and separation of natural products, optimizing resources and promoting sustainability.


The Role of the Anion in Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids for Fuel and Terpenes Processing
Aline Zambom, Sérgio M. Vilas-Boas, Liliana P. Silva, Mónia A. R. Martins, Olga Ferreira, and Simão P. Pinho
MDPI AG
The potentialities of methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents were evaluated for some relevant separation problems—terpene fractionation and fuel processing—studying selectivities, capacities, and solvent performance indices. The activity coefficients at infinite dilution of the solute (1) in the IL (3), γ13∞, of 52 organic solutes were measured by inverse gas chromatography over a temperature range of 333.2–453.2 K. The selected ILs are 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, [C4mim][PF6], and the equimolar mixture of [C4mim][PF6] and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C4mim]Cl. Generally, low polar solutes follow γ1,C4mimCl∞ > γ1,C4mimPF6+C4mimCl∞ > γ1,C4mimPF6∞ while the opposite behavior is observed for alcohols and water. For citrus essential oil deterpenation, the results suggest that cations with long alkyl chains, such as C12mim+, promote capacity, while selectivity depends on the solute polarity. Promising results were obtained for the separation of several model mixtures relevant to fuel industries using the equimolar mixture of [C4mim][PF6] and [C4mim]Cl. This work demonstrates the importance of tailoring the polarity of the solvents, suggesting the use of ILs with mixed anions as alternative solvents for the removal of aliphatic hydrocarbons and contaminants from fuels.