Interactions in water-ionic liquid mixtures: Comparing protic and aprotic systems

Joshua Elias Samuel James Reid, Richard John Gammons, John Martin Slattery, Adam J Walker, Seishi Shimizu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The sensitivity of ionic liquids (ILs) to water affects their physical and chemical properties, even at relatively low concentrations, yet the structural thermodynamics of protic IL (PIL) water systems at low water concentrations still remains unclear. Using the rigorous KirkwoodBuff theory of solutions, which can quantify the interactions between species in ILwater systems solely from thermodynamic data, we have shown the following: (1) Between analogous protic and aprotic ILs (AILs), the AIL cholinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([Ch][NTf 2]) shows stronger interactions with water at low water concentrations, with the analogous PIL N,Ndimethylethanolammonium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([DMEtA][NTf 2]) having stronger waterion interactions at higher water contents, despite waterion interactions weakening with increasing water content in both systems. (2) Water has little effect on the average ionion interactions in both protic and aprotic ILs, aside from the AIL [Ch][NTf 2], which shows a strengthening of ionion interactions with increasing water content. (3) Selfassociation of water in both PILwater systems leading to the presence of large aggregates of water in ILrich compositions has been inferred. Waterwater interactions in [DMEtA][NTf 2] were found to be similar to those of dialkylimidazolium AILs, whereas these interactions were much larger in the PIL N,Ndimethylethanolammonium propionate ([DMEtA][Pr]), attributed to the change in anionwater interactions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)599–609
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume121
Issue number3
Early online date13 Jan 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Jan 2017

Bibliographical note

© 2017 American Chemical Society. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

Cite this