Selective separation of ?-tocopherol using eco-friendly choline chloride ? Based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) via liquid-liquid extraction

In this work, the extraction of ?-tocopherol was studied using some recently introduced novel, simple and green deep eutectic solvents (DESs). Liquid ? liquid extraction measurements were conducted on ternary mixtures of {n-hexane + (?-, ?-, ?-, ?-) tocopherol + DESs}. The recently studied DESs including (mono-, di- and tri-) ethylene glycol, (mono-, di- and tri-) ethanolamine, and sucrose in combination with ChCl for the first time were used for this extraction. The various parameters affected on extraction efficiency including kind of DESs, temperature (298.15?308.15 K) and extraction time (12, 24 and 48 h) were evaluated. The calculated selectivity (S) and solute distribution coefficient (?) showed good performance of the selected DESs for ?-tocopherol. The nonrandom liquid equation (NTRL) was utilized to correlate measured experimental LLE results, prediction of activity coefficient at infinite dilution (??) and capacity of solvent for solute (C?). Moreover, higher selectivity, lower contamination of extracted ?-tocopherol (with solvents) and immiscibility of eutectic solvents in vitamin E were other advantages of this extraction.