A comparison of the ultraslow relaxation processes at the ionic liquid/water interface for three hydrophobic ionic liquids

The ultraslow relaxation, on the order of a few seconds or longer, of the structure of the electrical double layer in response to the change in the phase-boundary. potential across the ionic liquid (IL)/water(W) interface, which was recently reported for trioctylmethylammonium bis(nonafluorobutanesulfonyl)amide, has been confirmed in two new hydrophobic ionic liquids, trihexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(nonafluorobutanesulfonyl)amide and trihexyltetradecylphosphonium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate. A comparison of the degree of the hysteresis in electrocapillary curves for these ILs with those for trioctylmethylammonium bis (nonafluorobutanesulfonyl)amide demonstrates that the degree of the hysteresis is not correlated with the viscosity of these ILs. The ultraslow relaxation of the electrical double layer seems to be a general feature of ILs at electrified interfaces. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.