Physicochemical properties of imidazolium-derived ionic liquids with different C-2 substitutions

Five room temperature ionic liquids based on C-2 substituted imidazolium cations and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (TFSI) anions were synthesized and their physicochemical properties: thermal property, density, viscosity, ionic conductivity, self-diffusion coefficients, and electrochemical stability, were systematically investigated. The temperature dependence of both viscosity and ionic conductivities of these ionic liquids can be described by the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) equation. Compared with the reference, 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide, the introduction of functional groups at the C-2 position generally increased the viscosity and lowered the ionic conductivity. The introduction of an ether group (-CH2OCH2CH2CH2CH3) at the C-2 position not only enhanced the reduction stability of the ionic liquids but also exhibited the lowest solid electrolyte interfacial resistance (R-SEI). In contrast, the introduction of a cyano group (-CN) at the C-2 position not only decreased the reduction stability but also adversely increased the SEI resistance. The effect of the C-2 substitution on the reduction stability was explained by the change in the energy level of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. The self-diffusion coefficients (D) of each ion were measured by pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR). The lithium transference number (t(Li)) of 0.5 M LiTFSI/IL solutions calculated from the self-diffusion coefficients was in the range of 0.04 to 0.09.