Tuning the electronic environment of cations and anions using ionic liquid mixtures

Villar-Garcia, Ignacio J.; Licence, Peter; Lovelock, Kevin R.J.; Men, Shuang

Abstract

Electrostatic interactions are ubiquitous in ionic liquids and therefore, the electronic environment (i.e. the distribution of electron density) of their constituent ions has a determining influence on their properties and applications. Moreover, the distribution of electron density on atoms is at the core of ionic liquid molecular dynamics simulations. In this work, we demonstrate that changing the composition of ionic liquid mixtures can tune the electronic environment of their constituent ions, both anions and cations. The electronic environment of these ions can be monitored by measuring the characteristic electron binding energies of their constituent atoms by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The possibility to fine tune, in a controlled way, the electronic environment of specific ions provides an invaluable tool to understand ionic liquid properties and allows the design of ionic liquid mixtures towards specific applications. Here, we demonstrate the power of this tool by tuning the electronic environment of a catalytic centre, and consequently its catalytic activity, by the use of ionic liquid mixtures. This journal is © the Partner Organisations 2014.

Citation

Villar-Garcia, I. J., Licence, P., Lovelock, K. R., & Men, S. (2014). Tuning the electronic environment of cations and anions using ionic liquid mixtures. Chemical Science, 5(6), 2573-2579. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4sc00106k

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 6, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2014
• Publication Date: Apr 8, 2014
• Deposit Date: Aug 8, 2018
• Journal: Chemical Science
• Print ISSN: 2041-6520
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-6539
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 2573-2579
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c4sc00106k
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1110605
• Publisher URL: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/SC/C4SC00106K#!divAbstract
• Additional Information: : This document is CrossCheck deposited; : Supplementary Information; : The Royal Society of Chemistry has an exclusive publication licence for this journal; OPEN ACCESS: The accepted version of this article will be made freely available after a 12 month embargo period; : Received 10 January 2014; Accepted 6 April 2014; Accepted Manuscript published 8 April 2014; Advance Article published 24 April 2014; Version of Record published 7 May 2014