Femtosecond Raman-Induced Kerr Effect Study of Temperature-Dependent Intermolecular Dynamics in Pyrrolidinium-Based Ionic Liquids: Effects of Anion Species.

Abstract

We investigated the temperature dependence of the intermolecular vibrational dynamics of pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquids (ILs) with 10 different anion species using femtosecond Raman-induced Kerr effect spectroscopy. The features of the temperature-dependent vibrational spectra vary with the different anions. In the case of the ILs with spherical top anions, such as tetrafluoroborate and hexafluorophosphate, and trifluoromethanesulfonate, the spectral intensity in the low-frequency region below 50 cm-1 increases with rising temperature, while that in the high-frequency region above 50 cm-1 remains almost unchanged. Similar temperature-dependent features were also found in the bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide and bis(perfluoroalkylsulfonyl)amide salts. However, the difference spectra at respective temperature relative to 293 K indicate that the spectra of the bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide and bis(perfluoroalkylsulfonyl)amide salts are more temperature-sensitive in the low-frequency region below 50 cm-1 compared to those of the tetrafluoroborate, hexafluorophosphate, and trifluoromethanesulfonate salts. The spectra of 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium-based ILs with dicyanamide and tricyanomethide anions show a characteristic temperature dependence; in addition to an increase of the spectral intensity in the low-frequency region below 50 cm-1, a red shift of the spectra in the high-frequency side above 50 cm-1 was observed with increasing temperature. This implies that the librational motions of planar dicyanamide and tricyanomethide anions contribute substantially to the low-frequency spectra. We also compared the temperature-dependent low-frequency spectra of 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium- and 1-(2-methoxyethyl)-1-methylpyrrolidinium-based ILs with some anions. Although the spectral shapes are slightly different in the range of 70-150 cm-1, which can be attributed to the intramolecular vibrational modes of the cations, the temperature dependence of the spectral shapes is quite similar, indicating that the ether substitution in the cation side groups has little effects on the temperature dependence of the low-frequency spectra. The fragilities of the ILs were also estimated from the temperature-dependent viscosities and the glass-transition temperatures. The fragility parameter seems to be correlated with the temperature dependence of the first moment of the low-frequency spectral bands mainly arising from the intermolecular vibrations of the ILs.