Thermal stability and specific heats of {[emim][DCA] plus [emim][TCM]} mixed ionic liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been revealed as promising solvents, specifically in the liquid-liquid extraction of aromatics from aliphatics. Nowadays, the use of binary mixtures of ILs is a usual trend looking for improving results achieved by pure ILs. {[emim][DCA] + [emim][TCM]} mixtures have shown good extractive properties. Thus, the goal of this work has been the study of the thermal stability and specific heats of the {[emim][DCA] + [emim][TCM]} IL mixtures. Isothermal TGA analyses were done to experimentally check the long term thermal stability, whereas dynamic TGA analyses were done to compare target parameters for the mixtures and to apply Seeberger et al. prediction method to calculate maximum operation temperatures (MOTs). Moreover, an ideal TGA mixing rule was proposed to describe the decomposition of the mixtures. Specific heats were also measured from 296.2 to 372.2 K and the deviation from ideality of mixture was evaluated. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.