Physicochemical Characterization of Morpholinium Cation Based Protic Ionic Liquids Used As Electrolytes

Abstract

New protic ionic liquids (PILs) based on the morpholinium, N-methylmorpholinium, and N-ethyl morpholinium cations have been synthesized through a simple and atom-economic neutralization reaction between N-alkyl morpholine and formic acid. Their densities, refractive indices, thermal properties, and electrochemical windows have been measured. The temperature dependence of their dynamic viscosity and ionic conductivity have also been determined. The results allow us to classify them according to a classical Walden diagram and to evaluate their "fragility". In addition, morpholinium based PILs exhibit a large electrochemical window as compared to other protic ionic liquids (up 2.91 V) and possess relatively high ionic conductivities of 10-16.8 mS x cm(-1) at 25 degrees C and 21-29 mS x cm(-1) at 100 degrees C, and a residual conductivity close to 1.0 mS x cm(-1) at -15 degrees C. PIL-water mixtures exhibit high ionic conductivities up to 65 mS x cm(-1) at 25 degrees C and 120 mS x cm(-1) at 100 degrees C for morpholinium formate with water weight fraction w(w) = 0.6. Morpholinium based PILs studied in this work have a low cost and low toxicity, are good ionic liquids, and prove extremely fragile. They have wide applicable perspectives as electrolytes for fuel cell devices, thermal transfer fluids, and acid-catalyzed reaction media as replacements of conventional solvents.