Many ionic liquids (ILs) which contain an alkyl chain with at least 2-3 carbons contain polar and non-polar domains, which occur through segregation of the alkyl chains on either the cation or anion. This process is analogous to amphiphile self-assembly. The resulting nanostructure contains non-polar domains which are typically 5-20 �.The nanostructure of a series of protic ionic liquids (PILs) has been characterised using small and wide angle X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS) at the Australian Synchrotron [1]. The PILs investigated had primary, secondary and tertiary ammonium cations containing different alkyl chain lengths, with and without hydroxyl substitution of the alkyl chain. Carboxylate or nitrate anions were paired with these cations.More recently we have developed a series of 11 fluorinated protic ionic liquids (FPILs) which contain a hydrocarbon amine cation paired with a perfluorinated anion.[2] In the liquid state these FPILs contain intermediate range order due to segregation of the hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon moieties into separate domains leading to polar, hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon domains. These are the first ionic liquids reported which contain three domains.We have investigated the effect of adding solutes such as water [3], alcohols and hexane [4] to PILs, and have identified the probable locations within the structures for each of these solutes. The addition of these solutes to FPILs compared to PILs led to significantly different changes to the nanostructure [5]. [1] T. L. Greaves, D. F. Kennedy, S. T. Mudie, C. J. Drummond, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2010 , 114, 10022-10031. [2] Y. Shen, D. F. Kennedy, T. L. Greaves, A. Weerawardena, R. J. Mulder, N. Kirby, G. Song and C. J. Drummond, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2012, 14 , 7981.[3] Greaves, T. L.; Kennedy, D. F.; Weerawardena, A.; Tse, N. M. K.; Kirby, N.; Drummond, C. J. J. Phys. Chem. B 2011 , 115, 2055.[4] Greaves, T. L.; Kennedy, D. F.; Kirby, N.; Drummond, C. J. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2011 , 13, 13501.[5] Greaves, T. L.; Kennedy, D. F.; Shen, Y.; Hawley, A.; Song, G.; Drummond, C. J. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013 , 15, 7592.

Nanostructure of protic ionic liquids

248th National Meeting (2014)

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