Triphilic ionic-liquid mixtures: fluorinated and non-fluorinated aprotic ionic-liquid mixtures

We present here the possibility of forming triphilic mixtures from alkyl- and fluoroalkylimidazolium ionic liquids, thus, macroscopically homogeneous mixtures for which instead of the often observed two domainspolar and nonpolarthree stable microphases are present: polar, lipophilic, and fluorous ones. The fluorinated side chains of the cations indeed self-associate and form domains that are segregated from those of the polar and alkyl domains. To enable miscibility, despite the generally preferred macroscopic separation between fluorous and alkyl moieties, the importance of strong hydrogen bonding is shown. As the long-range structure in the alkyl and fluoroalkyl domains is dependent on the composition of the liquid, we propose that the heterogeneous, triphilic structure can be easily tuned by the molar ratio of the components. We believe that further development may allow the design of switchable, smart liquids that change their properties in a predictable way according to their composition or even their environment

Mesoscopic structural organization in fluorinated pyrrolidinium based room temperature ionic liquids

In this contribution the microscopic and mesoscopic structural organization in a series of fluorinated room temperature ionic liquids, based on N-methyl-N-alkylpyrrolidinium cations and on bis(perfluoroalkylsulfonyl)imide anions, is investigated, using a synergy of experimental (X-ray and neutron scattering) and computational (Molecular Dynamics) techniques. The proposed ionic liquids are of high interest as electrolyte media for lithium battery applications. Together with information on their good ion transport properties in conjunction with low viscosity, we also describe the existence of nm-scale spatial organization induced by the segregation of fluorous moieties into domains. This study shows the strong complementarity between X-ray/neutron scattering in detecting the complex segregated morphology in these systems at mesoscopic spatial scales and MD simulations in successfully delivering a robust description of the segregated morphology at atomistic level

Structure and vibrational features of the protic ionic liquid 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]-undec-7-ene-8-ium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide, [DBUH][TFSI]

The Protic Ionic Liquid (PIL) formed by neutralization of the super-strong base 1,7-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) with the super-strong acid bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)-imide (TFSI), indicated as [DBUH][TFSI], has been investigated. Its chemical physical properties and structural features have been explored using a synergy of experimental and computational tools. Molecular Dynamics-rationalised X-ray diffraction patterns highlight the major role played by hydrogen bonding (HB) in affecting morphology in this PIL. A comparison between HB features in this and in related PILs has been presented, on the base of far-IR experiments and DFT analysis. Indications of a weaker HB interaction in [DBUH][TFSI] in comparison with [DBUH][TfO], consistently with their ΔpKa difference, have been observed and rationalised in terms of geometrical properties of the main conformers contributing to the experimental spectra. In the liquid phase of [DBUH][TFSI] a particularly large conformational disorder is observed and the corresponding large dispersion of the frequencies of the HB stretching modes leads to a broad absorption band without a well defined peak. On the contrary, well detectable HB related absorptions are observable in the solid phase of [DBUH][TFSI] and at all temperatures in [DBU][TfO], where less configurational disorder occurs

Liquid Structure of a Water-in-Salt Electrolyte with a Remarkably Asymmetric Anion

Water-in-salt systems, i.e., super-concentrated aqueous electrolytes, such as lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (21 mol/kgwater), have been recently discovered to exhibit unexpectedly large electrochemical windows and high lithium transference numbers, thus paving the way to safe and sustainable charge storage devices. The peculiar transport features in these electrolytes are influenced by their intrinsically nanoseparated morphology, stemming from the anion hydrophobic nature and manifesting as nanosegregation between anions and water domains. The underlying mechanism behind this structure-dynamics correlation is, however, still a matter of strong debate. Here, we enhance the apolar nature of the anions, exploring the properties of the aqueous electrolytes of lithium salts with a strongly asymmetric anion, namely, (trifluoromethylsulfonyl)(nonafluorobutylsulfonyl) imide. Using a synergy of experimental and computational tools, we detect a remarkable level of structural heterogeneity at a mesoscopic level between anion-rich and water-rich domains. Such a ubiquitous sponge-like, bicontinuous morphology develops across the whole concentration range, evolving from large fluorinated globules at high dilution to a percolating fluorous matrix intercalated by water nanowires at super-concentrated regimes. Even at extremely concentrated conditions, a large population of fully hydrated lithium ions, with no anion coordination, is detected. One can then derive that the concomitant coexistence of (i) a mesoscopically segregated structure and (ii) fully hydrated lithium clusters disentangled from anion coordination enables the peculiar lithium diffusion features that characterize water-in-salt systems

Pore wall corrugation effect on the dynamics of adsorbed H 2 studied by in situ quasi elastic neutron scattering Observation of two timescaled diffusion

The self diffusion mechanisms for adsorbed H2 in different porous structures are investigated with in situ quasi elastic neutron scattering method at a temperature range from 50 K to 100 K and at various H2 loadings. The porous structures of the carbon materials have been characterized by sorption analysis with four different gases and the results are correlated with previous in depth analysis with small angle neutron scattering method. Thus, an investigation discussing the effect of pore shape and size on the nature of adsorbed H2 self diffusion is performed. It is shown that H2 adsorbed in nanometer scale pores is self diffusing in two distinguishable timescales. The effect of the pore, pore wall shape and corrugation on the fraction of confined and more mobile H2 is determined and analyzed. The increased corrugation of the pore walls is shown to have a stronger confining effect on the H2 motions. The difference of self diffusional properties of the two H2 components are shown to be smaller when adsorbed in smoother walled pores. This is attributed to the pore wall corrugation effect on the homogeneity of formed adsorbed layer

Breakdown of the Giant Spin Model in the Magnetic Relaxation of the Mn6 Nanomagnets

We study the spin dynamics in two variants of the high-anisotropy Mn-6 nanomagnet by inelastic neutron scattering, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and magnetometry. We show that a giant-spin picture is completely inadequate for these systems and that excited S multiplets play a key role in determining the effective energy barrier for the magnetization reversal. Moreover, we demonstrate the occurrence of tunneling processes involving pair of states having different total spin