Abnormal FT-IR and FTRaman spectra of ionic liquids confined in nano-porous silica gel

Abstract

A new concept of designing and synthesizing highly dispersed ionic liquids was developed through physical confinement or encapsulation of them into silica gel matrix with sol–gel process. A series of silica gel confined ionic liquids were synthesized through this process and characterized by diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and FTRaman analysis, and abnormal FT-IR and FTRaman spectra were observed. The silica gel matrixes confined ionic liquid BMImBF 4 were further characterized by BET analysis after the ionic liquid was almost completely washed out by acetone under refluxing conditions and meso-porous silica gel matrixes were obtained according to the N 2 adsorption measurements, which suggested that the particle-size of the dispersed ionic liquids was in nano-scale. In consideration of the results obtained together, it could be found that the abnormal FT-IR and FTRaman spectra were changed with the pore-size of the silica gel matrix. For example, obvious abnormal FT-IR and FTRaman spectra appeared when the particle-size of ionic liquid BMImBF 4 is smaller than 11 nm while they disappeared again if the corresponding particle-size >11 nm. These results indicated that nano-effect, or restriction effect, produced from the nano-pores of silica gel was the reason for the abnormal FT-IR and FTRaman spectra.