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Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) are stable liquids composed of anions and cations. 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium (EMIm, EMI) is a popular and important cation that produces thermally stable ILs with various anions. In this study two amide-type anions, bis(trifluoro-methanesulfonyl)amide [N(SO2CF3)2, TFSA, TFSI, NTf2, or Tf2N] and bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide [(N(SO2F)2, FSA, or FSI] were investigated by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy. In addition to EMIm-TFSA and EMIm-FSA, lithium-salt-doped binary systems were prepared (EMIm-TFSA-Li and EMIm-FSA-Li). The spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) were measured by 1H, 19F, and 7Li NMR spectroscopy and the correlation times of 1H NMR, τc(EMIm) (8 × 10-10 to 3 × 10-11 s) for the librational molecular motion of EMIm and those of 7Li NMR, τc(Li) (5 × 10-9 to 2 × 10-10 s) for a lithium jump were evaluated in the temperature range between 253 and 353 K. We found that the bulk viscosity (η) versus τc(EMIm) and cation diffusion coefficient DEMIm versus the rate 1/τc(EMIm) have good relationships. Similarly, linear relations were obtained for the η versus τc(Li) and the lithium diffusion coefficient DLi versus the rate 1/τc(Li). The mean one-jump distances of Li were calculated from τc(Li) and DLi. The experimental values for the diffusion coefficients, ionic conductivity, viscosity, and density in our previous paper were analyzed by the Stokes-Einstein, Nernst-Einstein, and Stokes-Einstein-Debye equations for the neat and binary ILs to clarify the physicochemical properties and mobility of individual ions. The deviations from the classical equations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relaxation processes for imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) were investigated by means of an incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering technique. In order to clarify the cation and anion effects on the relaxation processes, ten samples were measured. For all of the samples, we found three relaxations at around 1 ps, 10 ps, and 100 ps-10 ns, each corresponding to the alkyl reorientation, the relaxation related to the imidazolium ring, and the ionic diffusion. The activation energy (Ea) for the alkyl relaxation is insensitive to both anion and alkyl chain lengths. On the other hand, for the imidazolium relaxation and the ionic diffusion processes, Ea increases as the anion size decreases but is almost independent of the alkyl chain length. This indicates that the ionic diffusion and imidazolium relaxation are governed by the Coulombic interaction between the core parts of the cations (imidazolium ring) and the anions. This is consistent with the fact that the imidazolium-based ILs have nanometer scale structures consisting of ionic and neutral (alkyl chain) domains. It is also found that there is a clear correlation between the ionic diffusion and viscosity, indicating that the ionic diffusion is mainly associated with the glass transition which is one of the characteristics of imidazolium-based ILs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geometry optimizations are performed at the DFT/B3LYP/6-311+G* level. Four intriguing coupling modes, totally eight stable structures are found in the potential energy surfaces of the water-assisted coupling of imidazole dimer radical cation. In these isomers, the water molecules are embedded between two imidazole moieties, and the oxygen atom is tridentate or quadridentate, respectively. The distinct redshifts of the vibrational frequencies of the O–H...N and N–H...O type H bonds indicate the strong interaction of two imidazole rings of respective isomer. Inspection of the highest occupied molecular orbital predicts the alterations of the geometry structures on oxidation and reduction. The low barrier of the fragment rotation demonstrates that the isomerization processes by experiencing the distinct transition states are easy to fulfill, especially for those with O–H...N and C–H...O H bonds. Both the energy difference of the 0°-cis and 180°-trans orientation and the barriers of the fragment rotation are lowered by the water assisting. The range of the zero point vibrational energy correction indicates that the influence on the complexes with N–H...O and O–H...N H bonds (0.13–0.17 kcal/mol) is more significant than those with O–H...N and C–H...O H bonds (±0.03 kcal/mol). The dissociation energies of these isomers indicate that the charges transfer easily through water in the dissociation process and then are distributed mainly over the imidazole ring connecting with water molecule. The isomer with proton transfer between imidazole fragments is the most stable one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]