Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) are anisotropic mesogenic molecules which additionally carry charges. This combination gives rise to a complex interplay of the underlying (anisotropic) contributions to the pair interactions. It promises interesting and distinctive structural and orientational properties to arise in systems of ILCs, combining properties of liquid crystals and ionic liquids. While previous theoretical studies have focused on the phase behavior of ILCs and the structure of the respective bulk phases, in the present study we provide new results, obtained within density functional theory, concerning (planar) free interfaces between an isotropic liquid $L$ and two types of smectic-A phases ($S_A$ or $S_{AW}$). We discuss the structural and orientational properties of these interfaces in terms of the packing fraction profile $η(\vec{r})$ and the orientational order parameter profile $S_2(\vec{r})$ concerning the tilt angle $α$ between the (bulk) smectic layer normal and the interface normal. The asymptotic decay of $η(\vec{r})$ and of $S_2(\vec{r})$ towards their values in the isotropic bulk is discussed, too.
As typical complex liquids, ionic liquids (ILs) exhibit phases beyond the description of simple liquid theories. In particular, with an intermediate cationic side-chain length, ILs can form the nanoscale segregated liquid (NSL) phase, which will eventually transform into the ionic liquid crystal (ILC) phase when the side chains are adequately long. However, the microscopic mechanism of this transformation is still unclear. In this work, by means of coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, we show that, with increasing cationic side-chain length, some local pieces of non-polar domains are …
By reinforcing the interaction energy of the liquid with respect to the surface using total wetting boundary conditions, the response of liquids to mechanical shear stress is stronger and exhibits at sub-millimeter scale elastic properties. This study extends here to liquids with strong electrostatic interactions such as ionic liquids and paramagnetic liquids. We show that it is also possible to identify and measure a non-zero low-frequency shear elasticity at sub-millimeter scale. The observation of mesoscopic elastic properties in liquids generally considered as viscous away from any phase t…
Ionic liquids (ILs), also known as room-temperature molten salts, are composed of pure ions with melting points usually below 100 degrees centigrade. Because of their low volatility and vast amounts of species, ILs can serve as "green solvents" and "designer solvents" to meet the requirements of various applications by fine tuning their molecular structures. A good understanding of the phase behaviors of ILs is certainly fundamentally important in terms of their wide applications. This review intends to summarize the major conclusions so far drawn on phase behaviors of ILs by computational, th…
We study ionic liquids interacting with electrified interfaces. The ionic fluid is modeled as a Coulomb lattice gas. We compare the ionic density profiles calculated using a popular modified Poisson-Boltzmann equation with the explicit Monte Carlo simulations. The modified Poisson-Boltzmann theory fails to capture the structural features of the double layer and is also unable to correctly predict the ionic density at the electrified interface. The lattice Monte Carlo simulations qualitatively capture the coarse-grained structure of the double layer in the continuum. We propose a convolution re…
In this contribution, a new POM-based ionic liquid, namely (P6,6,6,14)4[W10O32], was fully characterized. Its viscosity and its very low dielectric constant make this hybrid ionic liquid suitable to be used as solvent for organic transformations. As proof of concept, this unique ionic liquid combining solvant and catalyst properties was tested for catalytic oxidation of various alcohols and alkenes in presence of H2O2
Ionic Liquids (ILs) are organic molten salts characterized by the total absence of solvent. They show remarkable properties: low vapor pressure, high ionic conductivity, high chemical, thermal and electrochemical stability. These electrolytes meet therefore key criteria for the development of safe energy storage systems. Due to a competition between electrostatic and van der Walls interactions, ILs show an uncommon property for neat bulk liquids: they self-organize in transient nanometric domains. In ILs-based electrochemical devices, this fluctuating nano-segregation acts as energy barriers t…
An imidazolium-based poly(ionic liquid) is covalently cross-linked via UV light-induced thiolene (click) chemistry to yield a stable porous polyelectrolyte membrane with gradients of crosslink density and pore size distribution along its cross-section.
Temperature dependence of the capacitance of the electrical double layer (EDL) in concentrated electrolytes/ionic liquids has been under debates for decades. To rationalise the capacitance vs temperature dependence, we run molecular dynamics simulations of the EDL at variable temperatures. We show that the dependence is related to the smearing of the EDL multilayer structure with increasing temperature. The results are in agreement with the recent experimental data. To explain the results, we propose a phenomenological ionic bilayer model.
Bulk properties of ionic liquid crystals are investigated using density functional theory. The liquid crystal molecules are represented by ellipsoidal particles with charges located in their center or at their tails. Attractive interactions are taken into account in terms of the Gay-Berne pair potential. Rich phase diagrams involving vapor, isotropic and nematic liquid, as well as smectic phases are found. The dependence of the phase behavior on various parameters such as the length of the particles and the location of charges on the particles is studied.
We explore an idealized theoretical model for the transport of ions within highly asymmetric ionic liquid mixtures. A primitive model (PM)-inspired system serves as a representative for asymmetric ionic materials (such as liquid crystalline salts) which quench to form disordered, partially-arrested phases. Self-Consistent Generalized Langevin Equation (SCGLE) Theory is applied to understand the connection between the size ratio of charge-matched salts and their average mobility. Within this model, we identify novel glassy states where one of the two charged species (either the macro-cation or …
We present a molecular dynamics study of the effects of confinement on the lubrication and flow properties of ionic liquids. We use a coarse-grained salt model description of ionic liquid as a lubricant confined between finite solid plates and subjected to two dynamic regimes: shear and cyclic loading. The impact of confinement on the ion arrangement and mechanical response of the system has been studied in detail and compared to static and bulk properties. The results have revealed that the wall slip has a profound influence on the force built--up as a response to mechanical deformation and t…
The mesoscopic field theory for ionic systems [A. Ciach and G. Stell, J. Mol. Liq. 87, 255 (2000)] is extended to the system with charged boundaries. A very simple expression for the excess grand potential functional of the charge density is developed. The size of hard-cores of ions is taken into account in the expression for the internal energy. The functional is suitable for a description of a distribution of ions in ionic liquids and ionic liquid mixtures with neutral components near a weakly charged wall. The Euler-Lagrange equation is obtained, and solved for a flat confining surface. An …
The phase behaviour and dynamics of molecular ionic liquids are studied using primitive models and extensive computer simulations. The models account for size disparity between cation and anion, charge location on the cation, and cation-shape anisotropy, which are all prominent features of important materials such as room-temperature ionic liquids. The vapour-liquid phase diagrams are determined using high-precision Monte Carlo simulations, setting the scene for in-depth studies of ion dynamics in the liquid state. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to explore the structure, single-partic…
Recently it was shown that the WAC model for liquid silica [L. V. Woodcock, C. A. Angell, and P. Cheeseman, J. Chem. Phys. 65, 1565 (1976)] is remarkably close to having a liquid-liquid critical point (LLCP). We demonstrate that increasing the ion charge separates the global maxima of the response functions, while reducing the charge smoothly merges them into a LLCP; a phenomenon that might be experimentally observable with charged colloids. An analysis of the Si and O coordination numbers suggests that a sufficiently low Si/O coordination number ratio is needed to attain a LLCP.
We present an efficient method for simulating Coulomb systems confined by metal electrodes. The approach relies on Green functions techniques to obtain the electrostatic potential for an infinite periodically replicated system. This avoids the use of image charges or an explicit calculation of the induced surface charge, both of which dramatically slows down the simulations. To demonstrate the utility of the new method we use it to obtain the ionic density profiles and the differential capacitances, which are of great practical and heoretical interest, for a lattice model of an ionic liquid.
In this review, we shortly summarize the basic theoretical milestones achieved in the mean-field theory of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) on charged electrodes since the publication of Kornyshev's seminal paper in 2007. We pay special attention to the behavior of the differential capacitance profile and the microscopic parameters of ions that can have substantial influence on it. Among them are parameters of short-range specific interactions, ionic diameters, static polarizabilities, and permanent dipole moments. We also discuss the recent "nonlocal" mean-field theories that can descri…
Polymeric ionic liquids are emerging polyelectrolyte materials for modern electrochemical applications. In this paper, we propose a self-consistent field theory of the polymeric ionic liquid on a charged conductive electrode. Taking into account the conformation entropy of rather long polymerized cations within the Lifshitz theory and electrostatic and excluded volume interactions of ionic species within the mean-field approximation, we obtain a system of self-consistent field equations for the local electrostatic potential and average concentrations of monomeric units and counterions. We solv…
The model of dipole fluid for the ionic liquids similar to the molten NaCl is proposed. The estimates for the critical parameters are obtained with the help of the van der Waals equation of state. The influence of the rotation on the characteristics of a dipole pair and the location of the critical point is discussed. The dissociation of such fluid near the critical point is considered.
The work reports transport and structure properties of the three pyridinium-based ionic liquids (RTILs) - N-butylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate [BPY][PF6], N-butylpyridinium trifluorosulfonate [BPY][TF] and N-butylpyridinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide [BPY][TFSI] - in their mixtures with acetone (ACET). The ionic conductivity maximum occurs at 10 mol% RTIL, irrespective of the anion. The absolute ionic conductivity value of [BPY][TF] is higher than those of other RTILs. This is explained by a weaker cation-anion binding than that in [BPY][PF6] and smaller anion size than that of [BPY][…
The report presents pressure-related broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) studies in liquid crystalline octyloxycyanbiphenyl and its nanocolloid with BaTiO3 nanoparticles, focused on the low-frequency ionic domain and the impact of pretransitional fluctuations. Hence basic exogenic (pressure) and endogenic (nanoparticles) impacts on dielectric properties are addressed. The innovative derivative-based analysis revealed functional 'critical-like' descriptions of ionic contributions to dielectric permittivity and electric conductivity. The supplementary dielectric constant scan, yielding insig…
We investigate the liquid-vapor interface of the restricted primitive model for an ionic fluid using a density functional approach. The applied theory includes the electrostatic contribution to the free energy functional arising from the bulk energy equation of state and the mean spherical approximation for a restricted primitive model, as well as the associative contribution, due to the formation of pairs of ions. We compare the density profiles and the values of the surface tension with previous theoretical approaches.
We perform molecular dynamics simulations of ionic liquids confined between graphene walls under a large variety of conditions (pure ionic liquids, mixtures with water and alcohols, mixtures with lithium salts and defective graphene walls). Our results show that the formation of striped and hexagonal patterns in the Stern layer can be considered as a general feature of ionic liquids at electrochemical interfaces, the transition between patterns being controlled by the net balance of charge in the innermost layer of adsorbed molecules. This explains previously reported experimental and computat…
Ionic Liquids feature thermophysical properties that are of interest in solvents, energy storage materials and tenable lubrication applications. Recently, a series of coarse grained (CG) models was developed to investigate 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [C2MIM][BF4] and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [C4MIM][PF6] ionic liquids. Building on these CG models we derive force-fields to investigate the [C_{2-8}MIM] [BF4] family of ionic liquids, as a starting step for systematic investigations of lubrication under nanoconfinement conditions. The simualted equation of …
Using classical molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the mobility of ions in [Bmim][TFSI], a typical room temperature ionic liquid. Analyzing the trajectories of individual cations and anions, we estimate the time that ions spend in bound, clustered states, and when the ions move quasi-freely. Using this information, we evaluate the average portion of free ions that dominate conductivity. The amount of thus defined free ions comprises 15-25%, monotonically increasing with temperature in the range of 300-600 K, with the rest of the ions being temporarily bound, moving rather in local …
The structure and interactions in electrolytes at high concentration have implications from energy storage to biomolecular interactions. However many experimental observations are yet to be explained in these mixtures, which are far beyond the regime of validity of mean field models. Here, we study the structural forces in a mixture of ionic liquid and solvent that is miscible in all proportions at room temperature. Using the surface force balance to measure the force between macroscopic smooth surfaces across the liquid mixtures, we uncover an abrupt increase in the wavelength above a thresho…
The ground state of a two-dimensional ionic mixture composed of oppositely charged spheres is determined as a function of the size asymmetry by using a penalty method. The cascade of stable structures includes square, triangular and rhombic crystals as well as a dipolar pair gas and a gas of one-dimensional crystalline chains. Thereby we confirm the square structure, found experimentally on charged granulates, and predict new phases detectable in experiments on granular and colloidal matter.
Ionic liquids are promising candidates for electrolytes in energy-storage systems. We demonstrate that mixing two ionic liquids allows to precisely tune their physical properties, like the dc conductivity. Moreover, these mixtures enable the gradual modification of the fragility parameter, which is believed to be a measure of the complexity of the energy landscape in supercooled liquids. The physical origin of this index is still under debate; therefore, mixing ionic liquids can provide further insights. From the chemical point of view, tuning ionic liquids via mixing is an easy and thus an ec…
Correlation functions in the restricted primitive model are calculated within a field-theoretic approach in the one-loop self-consistent Hartree approximation. The correlation functions exhibit damped oscillatory behavior as found before in the Gaussian approximation [Ciach at. al., J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 118}, 3702 (2003)]. The fluctuation contribution leads to a renormalization of both the amplitude and the decay length of the correlation functions. The renormalized quantities show qualitatively different behavior than their mean-field (MF) counterparts. While the amplitude and the decay length…
Viscosities and their temperature, T, and volume, V, dependences are reported for 7 molecular liquids and polymers. In combination with literature viscosity data for 5 other liquids, we show that the superpositioning of relaxation times for various glass-forming materials when expressed as a function of TV^g, where the exponent g is a material constant, can be extended to the viscosity. The latter is usually measured to higher temperatures than the corresponding relaxation times, demonstrating the validity of the thermodynamic scaling throughout the supercooled and higher T regimes. The value …
We numerically investigate the dynamic heterogeneity and its length scale found in the coarse-grained ionic liquid model systems. In our ionic liquid model systems, cations are modeled as dimers with positive charge, while anions are modeled as monomers with negative charge, respectively. To study the effect of the charge distributions on the cations, two ionic liquid models with different charge distributions are used and the model with neutral charge is also considered as a counterpart. To reveal the heterogeneous dynamics in the model systems, we examine spatial distributions of displacemen…
Using a variational field theory, we show that an electrolyte confined to a neutral cylindrical nanopore traversing a low dielectric membrane exhibits a first-order ionic liquid-vapor pseudo-phase-transition from an ionic-penetration "liquid" phase to an ionic-exclusion "vapor" phase, controlled by nanopore-modified ionic correlations and dielectric repulsion. For weakly charged nanopores, this pseudotransition survives and may shed light on the mechanism behind the rapid switching of nanopore conductivity observed in experiments.
The lithium transport mechanism in ternary polymer electrolytes, consisting of PEO/LiTFSI and various fractions of the ionic liquid N-methyl-N-propylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide, are investigated by means of MD simulations. This is motivated by recent experimental findings [Passerini et al., Electrochim. Acta 2012, 86, 330-338], which demonstrated that these materials display an enhanced lithium mobility relative to their binary counterpart PEO/LiTFSI. In order to grasp the underlying microscopic scenario giving rise to these observations, we employ an analytical, Rouse-based…
The impact of mesoscale organization on dynamics and ion transport in binary ionic liquid mixtures is investigated by broadband dielectric spectroscopy, dynamic-mechanical spectroscopy, x-ray scattering, and molecular dynamics simulations. The mixtures are found to form distinct liquids with macroscopic properties that significantly deviate from weighted contributions of the neat components. For instance, it is shown that the mesoscale morphologies in ionic liquids can be tuned by mixing to enhance the static dielectric permittivity of the resulting liquid by as high as 100$\%$ relative to the…
An extended Designed regression analysis of experimental data on density and refractive indices of several classes of ionic liquids yielded statistically averaged atomic volumes and polarizabilities of the constituting atoms. These values can be used to predict the molecular volume and polarizability of an unknown ionic liquid as well as its mass density and refractive index. Our approach does not need information on the molecular structure of the ionic liquid, but it turned out that the discrimination of the hybridization state of the carbons improved the overall result. Our results are not o…
Using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and a coarse grained model of ionic liquids, we have investigated the impact that the shape and the intramolecular charge distribution of the ions have on the electrotuneable friction with ionic-liquid nanoscale films. We show that the electric-field induces significant structural changes in the film, leading to dramatic modifications of the friction force. Comparison of the present work with previous studies using different models of ionic liquids indicate that the phenomenology presented here applies to a wide range of ionic liquids. In pa…
The structure of ionic adsorption layers is studied via a proper thermodynamic treatment of the electrostatic and non-electrostatic interactions between the surfactant ions as well as of the effect of thermodynamic non-locality. The analysis is also applied to phase transitions into the ionic adsorption layer, which interfere further with the oscillatory-diffusive structure of the electric double layer and hydrodynamic stability of squeezing waves in thin liquid films.
Atomistic simulations have been performed to investigate the effect of aliphatic chain length in tetraalkylphosphonium cations on liquid morphologies, microscopic ionic structures and dynamical properties of tetraalkylphosphonium chloride ionic liquids. The liquid morphologies are characterized by sponge-like interpenetrating polar and apolar networks in ionic liquids consisting of tetraalkylphosphonium cations with short aliphatic chains. The lengthening aliphatic chains in tetraalkylphosphonium cations leads to polar domains consisting of chloride anions and central polar groups in cations b…
We report measurements of the normal surface forces and friction forces between two mica surfaces separated by a nano-film of dicationic ionic liquid using a Surface Force Balance. The dicationic ionic liquid 1,10-bis(3-methylimidazolium)decane di- [bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)]imide forms a layered structure in nano-confinement, revealed by oscillatory structural forces. Friction measurements performed at different film thicknesses display quantized friction, i.e. discontinuities in friction as layers are squeezed out and friction coefficients dependent on the number of liquid layers confined…
Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) have attracted much of the attention of the scientific community in the past decade due the their novel and highly customizable properties. Nonetheless their high viscosities pose serious limitations to the use of RTILs in practical applications. To elucidate some of the physical aspects behind transport properties of RTILs, extensive classical molecular dynamics (MD) calculations are reported. Bulk viscosities and ionic conductivities of butyl-methyl-imidazole based RTILs are presented over a wide range of temperatures. The dependence of the properties o…
Charged cyclic polymers, e.g. cyclic DNAs and polypeptides, play enabling roles in organisms, but their synthesis was challenging due to the well known polyelectrolyte effect. To tackle the challenge, we developed a templated method to synthesize a library of imidazolium and pyridinium based cyclic poly(ionic liquid)s. Cyclic templates, cyclic polyimidazole and poly(2-pyridine), were synthesized first through ring-closure method by light-induced Diels-Alder click reaction. Through quaternization of cyclic templates followed by anion metathesis, the cyclic poly(ionic liquid)s were synthesized, …
Most ionic liquids contain at least one rather complex ion species exhibiting a dipolar moment. In the present work, we provide a thorough evaluation of broadband dielectric spectra of 12 ionic liquids taking into account the often neglected reorientational dynamics of these ions. We confirm that this dynamics leads to a clear relaxational signature in the spectra, a fact that so far only was considered in few previous works. The obtained reorientational relaxation times are well consistent with earlier inelastic light-scattering and high-frequency dielectric investigations. Evaluating our die…
Porous polymer membranes via electrostatic complexation triggered by neutralization are fabricated for the first time from a water-soluble poly(ionic liquid) (PIL). The porous structure is formed as a consequence of simultaneous phase separation of the PIL and ionic complexation, which occurred in a basic solution of a non-solvent for the PIL. These membranes have a stimuli-responsive porosity, with open and closed pores in isopropanol and in water, respectively. This property is quantitatively demonstrated in filtration experiments, where water is passing much slower through the membranes tha…
We report a computer simulation study of an electroneutral mixture of oppositely charged oblate ellipsoids of revolution with aspect ratio A = 1/3. In contrast to hard or soft repulsive ellipsoids, which are purely nematic, this system exhibits a smectic-A phase in which charges of equal sign are counterintuitively packed in layers perpendicular to the nematic director.
Porous and flexible actuating materials are important in the development of smart systems. We report here a facile method to prepare scalable, flexible actuating porous membranes based on a poly(ionic liquid)-modified tissue paper. The targeted membrane property profile was based on a synergy of a gradient porous structure of poly(ionic liquid) network and the flexibility of tissue paper. The gradient porous structure was built up through ammonia-triggered electrostatic complexation of a poly(ionic liquid) with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) that were previously impregnated inside the tissue paper. …
Solvents comprise two thirds of all industrial emissions. Traditional organic solvents easily reach the atmosphere as they have high vapor pressure and are linked to a host of negative environmental effects including climate change, urban air-quality and human illness. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTIL), on the other hand, have low vapor pressure and are not flammable or explosive, thereby resulting in fewer environmental burdens and health hazards. However, their life cycle environmental impacts as well as freshwater ecotoxicity implications are poorly understood. RTILs are molten salts th…
Dynamics of a coarse-grained model for the room-temperature ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, couched in the united-atom site representation are studied via molecular dynamics simulations. The dynamically heterogeneous behavior of the model resembles that of fragile supercooled liquids. At or close to room temperature, the model ionic liquid exhibits slow dynamics, characterized by nonexponential structural relaxation and subdiffusive behavior. The structural relaxation time, closely related to the viscosity, shows a super-Arrhenius behavior. Local excitations, def…
An important question in understanding the structure of ionic liquids is whether ions are truly "free" and mobile which would correspond to a concentrated ionic melt, or are rather "bound" in ion pairs, that is a liquid of ion pairs with a small concentration of free ions. Recent surface force balance experiments from different groups have given conflicting answers to this question. We propose a simple model for the thermodynamics and kinetics of ion pairing in ionic liquids. Our model takes into account screened ion-ion, dipole-dipole and dipole-ion interactions in the mean field limit. The r…
Using dielectric spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, we have performed a detailed investigation of the influence of water uptake on the translational and reorientational glassy dynamics in the typical ionic liquid 1-Butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride. From a careful analysis of the measured dielectric permittivity and conductivity spectra, we find a significant acceleration of cation reorientation and a marked increase of the ionic conductivity for higher water contents. The latter effect mainly arises due to a strong impact of water content on the glass temperature, which for…
Nonlinear optical and thermo-optical properties of two pure ionic liquids, BMIOMe.NTf2 and BMIOMe.N(CN)2, were examined here. It was the first nonlinear refractive index determination of a pristine ionic liquid by a standard self-refraction experiment. The nonlinear optical characterizations were performed using Z-scan and EZ-scan techniques in the thermally managed approach with a mode-locked femtosecond laser source. Thermal properties were analyzed concomitantly and the thermo-optical coefficient, thermal characteristic time, and lens strength were characterized. These results show that BMI…
