Imidazolium Ionic Liquid Helps to Disperse Fullerenes in Water.

Light fullerenes attract significant interest in pharmacy and medicine as drug vectors and antioxidants and to block AIDS virus enzyme. The progress of these applications is hindered by poor solubility of fullerenes in aqueous media. We propose a highly efficient hydrophilic system to disperse the C60 fullerene based on the accurate atomistic-resolution computer simulations. The introduced system is based on 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, [C4C1IM][BF4]-water mixtures. The first component is used to form a corona around C60 while exhibiting a significant miscibility with water. Structural and dynamical peculiarities of the C60-[C4C1IM][BF4]-water mixtures are discussed.