It is challenge to design imidazolium-based ILs (the most common IL class) that incorporate progressively more lipophilic structural elements while maintaining melting points below room temperature. The Tm values of these ILs increase significantly once an appended N-alkyl group exceeds seven carbons in length.Our previous studies discovered that incorporating unsaturation into long, lipidic side chains grafted onto the imidazolium cations reduces the Tm of the ionic liquids (ILs) containing those ions liquefy relative to counterparts bearing saturated side chains of equal length.Herein, we report synthesis of a series of lipid-inspired ILs with very low Tm by using the cyclization-alkylation reactions. The synthesis process has three steps which comprises reacting a diamine and different natural fatty acids which leads to long saturated and unsaturated chains at C2 position. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was utilized to study the effects of both long and branched 2-substituents upon ionic liquid melting points. This discovery may have dramatic impacts for ILs use in heat-transfer fluids, lubricants and gas storage applications.                                                                  

Novel strategy for the synthesis of 2-fatty acids-substituted Imidaziloum-based ionic liquids

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.