ABSTRACT
We present the first systematic study of the influence of temperature on the degree of surface enrichment of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs). Using angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the degree of surface enrichment strongly decreases with increasing temperature for all the studied ILs. For ILs with the same cation, but different anions, [C8 C1 Im]Br, [C8 C1 Im][TfO] and [C8 C1 Im][Tf2 N], no significant differences of the temperature-induced partial loss of surface enrichment are found. Measurements for [C4 C1 Im][TfO], [C8 C1 Im][TfO] and [C18 C1 Im][TfO] indicate a small effect of the chain length. For [C18 C1 Im][TfO], a continuous decrease of alkyl surface enrichment is found with increasing temperature, with no abrupt changes at the phase-transition temperature from the smectic A to the isotropic phase, indicating that the surface enrichment is not affected by this phase transition.
ABSTRACT
The influence of confinement on the ionic liquid crystal (ILC) [C(18)C(1)Im][OTf] is studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The ILC studied is supported on Si-based powders and glasses with pore sizes ranging from 11 to 50 nm. The temperature of the solid-to-liquid-crystalline phase transition seems mostly unaffected by the confinement, whereas the temperature of the liquid-crystalline-to-liquid phase transition is depressed for smaller pore sizes. A contact layer with a thickness in the order of 2 nm is identified. The contact layer exhibits a phase transition at a temperature 30 K lower than the solid-to-liquid-crystalline phase transition observed for the neat ILC. For applications within the "supported ionic liquid phase (SILP)" concept, the experiments show that in pores of diameter 50 nm a pore filling of α>0.4 is sufficient to reproduce the phase transitions of the neat ILC.
