Unraveling the Morphology of [CnC1Im]Cl Ionic Liquids Combining Cluster and Aggregation Analyses.

Abstract

A characteristic feature of ionic liquids is their nanosegregation, resulting in the formation of polar and nonpolar domains. The influence of increasing the alkyl side chain on the morphology of ionic liquids has been the subject of many studies. Typically, the polar network (charged part of the cation and anion) constitutes a continuous subphase that partially breaks to allow the formation of a nonpolar domain with the increase of the alkyl chain. As the nonpolar network expands, the number of tails per aggregate increases until the ionic liquid percolates. In this work, we demonstrate how the complementary software packages TRAVIS and AGGREGATES can be employed in conjunction to gain insights into the size and morphology of the [CnC1Im]Cl family, with n ∈ {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12}. The combination of the two approaches rounds off the picture of the intricate arrangement and structural features of the alkyl chains.