Dialkylimidazolium hydrophobicity

Heretofore, ionic liquids incorporating the 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cation have been preferred as they interact weakly with the anions and are more thermally stable than the quaternary ammonium cations. Recently, the physical properties of 1,2,3,4-tetraalkylimidazolium- and 1,3-dialkylimidazolium-containing ionic liquids in combination with various hydrophobic and hydrophilic anions have been systematically investigated (36,41). The melting point, thermal stability, density, viscosity, and other physical properties have been correlated with alkyl chain length of the imidazolium cation and the nature of the anion. The anion mainly determines water miscibility and has the most dramatic effect on the properties. An increase in the alkyl chain length of the cations from butyl to octyl, for example, increases the hydrophobicity and viscosity of the ionic liquid, whereas densities and surface tension values decrease, as expected. 

Ionic liquids are quite simply liquids that are composed entirely of ions [96, 97]. They are generally salts of organic cations, e.g. tetraalkylammonium, alkylpyridi-nium, 1,3-dialkylimidazolium, tetraalkylphosphonium (Fig. 7.28). Room temperature ionic liquids exhibit certain properties which make them attractive media for performing green catalytic reactions. They have essentially no vapor pressure and are thermally robust with liquid ranges of e.g. 300 °C, compared to 100 °C for water. Polarity and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity can be tuned by a suitable combination of cation and anion, which has earned them the accolade, designer solvents . 

A large variety of ILs of high purity with water content below lOOppm and halide content below lOppm are now available commercially. These include numerous iV-alkylpyridinium, 7V,7V -dialkylimidazolium, alkylammonium and alkylphosphonium salts, covalent hydrophobic ILs (e.g. l,2-dimethyl-3-propyliniidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, task-specific ILs, Bronsted acidic ILs (e.g. 3-[triphenylphosphonio]propane-l-sulfonic acid tosylate), nitrile-fiinction sed ILs, perfluorinated ILs (e.g. tetrabutylammonium nonafluorobutane sulfonate, BASF Basionics (e.g. 1,2,3-trimethylimidazolium methyl sulfate), and TOMATS for heavy metal extraction (e.g. methyltrioctylammonium thiosalicylate)... 

All 1,3-dialkylimidazolium ILs reported to date are hygroscopic, and their miscibility with water is largely controlled by the nature of the anion. While those salts containing the nitrate, chloride and perchlorate anions are usually miscible with water in all proportions, those associated with hexafluorophosphate and bis(tri-fluoromethane) sulfonylamidate anions are almost completely immiscible with water [93]. Interestingly, the miscibility with water of those containing the tetraf lu-oroborate anion is temperature dependent (Fig. 3.5-7) [36]. It is also known that an increase of the N-alkyl chain lengths increases the hydrophobicity for a series of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ILs [94] The miscibility of water with ILs can be increased by the addition of short-chain alcohols [95] or diminished by the addihon of salts (salting-out effect) [96]. 

It is crucial to find an appropriate combination of a catalyst and an ionic liquid which has to be harmonized with the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the product. For example, hydrosilylation reactions in the presence of ionic liquids based rat 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cations did not give the desired polyethersiloxanes, as the 2-H position of the cation was too reactive. The authors assumed that formation of NHC (Af-heterocyclic carbenes) which coordinates to the Pt center is responsible of the catalyst deactivation. 

Quaternary ammonium and phosphonium, as well as dialkylimidazolium ions, are typical ions used for preparing moderately hydrophobic ILs. It is known that these ions decompose through Hofmann elimination or ylide formation in strongly alkaline environment, e.g., solid alkyltrimethylammonium hydroxide hydrate, even at room temperature and the decomposition rate increases with elevating temperature [58, 59]. However, these cations are stable in an aqueous alkaline solution [58, 60], and, hence, ELSBs made of these irnis are stable when they are in contact with an aqueous alkaline solutimi, e.g., 0.1 mol dm NaOH. 

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