Vaporization enthalpies of imidazolium based ionic liquids. A thermogravimetric study of the alkyl chain length dependence

Vaporization enthalpies for a series of ten ionic liquids (ILs) 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide [C(n)mim][NTf2], with the alkyl chain length n = 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 were determined using the thermogravimetric method. An internally consistent set of experimental data and vaporization enthalpies at 540 K was obtained. Vaporization enthalpies at 540 K have shown a linear dependence on the chain length of the alkyl-imidazolium cation in agreement with the experimental results measured previously with a quartz crystal microbalance. Ambiguity of Delta C-g(l)p (o)(m)-values required for the extrapolation of experimental vaporization enthalpies to the reference temperature 298 K has been discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.