Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy Evidence for Structural Heterogeneity in Ionic Liquids

Abstract

Self-aggregation in room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) has been a subject of intense interest in recent years. In this work, we provide new experimental evidence for chain length-dependent self-aggregation in RTILs using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). In studying a homologous series of N-alkyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide, [CnMPy][Tf2N] RTILs of varying alkyl chain length (n = 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10), biphasic rhodamine 6G solute diffusion dynamics were observed; both the fast and slow diffusion coefficients decrease with increasing alkyl chain length, with the relative contribution from slower diffusion increasing for longer-chained [CnMPy][Tf2N]. We propose that the biphasic diffusion dynamics originate from self-aggregation of the nonpolar alkyl chains in the cationic [CnMPy]+. The presence of this local liquid structuring provides important insight into the behavior of RTILs relevant to their application in photovoltaics, fuel cells, and batteries.