Ionic liquids (ILs) are highly tailorable materials with unique physical and chemical properties that set them apart from conventional organic solvents. As the library of readily accessible ILs continues to grow, so too does their relevance in applications ranging from material processing to electrochemical energy storage as solvents capable of accessing new chemistries disallowed by traditional chemicals. While a great deal of interest has been directed towards imidazolium and quaternary ammonium based ionic liquids, there are other understudied classes of cations which have potentially favorable properties for energy related applications. One such class is that with boronium cations. These cations have a unique structure with a formally negative boron flanked by positive nitrogens. This inherently zwitterionic structure presents interesting possibilities for electrochemical applications. To date only a handful of boronium cation-based ionic liquids have been thoroughly characterized despite exhibiting impressive electrochemical stabilities (> 5.0 V). In the present study we synthesized a series of ILs with novel boronium cations coupled with the bis(trifluoro-methanesulfonyl)imide anion. We then characterized the electrochemical and physical properties of these boronium ionic liquids by techniques such as cyclic voltammetry, broadband dielectric spectroscopy, oscillatory shear rheology, and thermogravimetric analysis. We will discuss how systematic variations in boronium cation structure impacted electrochemical and physical properties.
more »
« less
A generalized machine learning model for predicting ionic conductivity of ionic liquids
Ionic liquids are currently being considered as potential electrolyte candidates for next-generation batteries and energy storage devices due to their high thermal and chemical stability. However, high viscosity and low conductivity at lower temperatures have severely hampered their commercial applications. To overcome these challenges, it is necessary to develop structure–property models for ionic liquid transport properties to guide the ionic liquid design. This work expands our previous effort in developing a machine learning model on imidazolium-based ionic liquids to now include ten different cation families, representing structural and chemical diversity. The model dataset contains 2869 ionic conductivity values over a temperature range of 238–472 K collected from the NIST ILThermo database and literature values for 397 unique ionic liquids. The database covers 214 unique cations and 68 unique anions. Three machine learning models, namely multiple linear regression, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting are applied to correlate the ionic liquid conductivity data with cation and anion features. Shapely additive analysis is performed to glean insights into cation and anion features with significant impact on ionic conductivity. Finally, the extreme gradient boosting model is used to predict the ionic conductivity of ionic liquids from all the possible combinations of unique cations and anions to identify ionic liquids crossing the ionic conductivity threshold of 2.0 S m −1 .
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1706978
- PAR ID:
- 10357429
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Molecular Systems Design & Engineering
- ISSN:
- 2058-9689
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
his study examined six phosphonium-based room-temperature ionic liquids (PRTILs) having trihexyltetradecyl- or tributyltetradecyl-phosphonium cations with saccharinate, salicylate, or benzoate anions, and obtained a feature parameter to correlate their cationic chain length, anionic ring size, and contact angle with tribological properties. PRTILs with trihexyltetradecyl-phosphonium cations had lower coefficient of friction (COF) and wear than PRTILs with tributyltetradecyl- phosphonium cations, a trend attributed to the additional methylene groups providing lower contact angle. For either cation, PRTILs with the saccharinate anion exhibited much lower COF and wear than single-ring anions, due to the formation of a low-shear-strength-tribofilm facilitated by the double-ring structure and sulfur of saccharinate. Overall, this study revealed PRTIL interfacial mechanisms that can be used to identify anion-cation combinations with optimal tribological performance.more » « less
-
We used equilibrium and non-equilibrium atomistic simulations to probe the influence of anion chemistry on the true conductivity, dynamical correlations, and ion transport mechanisms in polymeric ionic liquids. An inverse correlation was found between anion self-diffusivities, ionic mobilities, and the anion size for spherical anions. While some larger asymmetric anions had higher diffusivities than smaller spherical anions, their diffusivities and mobilities did not exhibit a direct correlation to the anion volumes. The conductivity and anion dynamical correlations also followed the same trends as displayed by the diffusivity and mobility of anions. All the systems we examined displayed positively correlated motion among anions, suggesting a contribution that enhances the conductivity beyond the ideal Nernst–Einstein value. Analysis of ion transport mechanisms demonstrated very similar hopping characteristics among the spherical anions despite differences in their sizes.more » « less
-
Abstract Conventional lubricants face significant challenges in electric vehicle (EV) systems due to their low electrical conductivity and inability to mitigate tribo-electrification effects which can result in increased friction, wear, and electrical discharge damage under external electrification. Consequently, conductive lubricants like ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as promising alternatives, offering enhanced compatibility with EV applications. This study investigated the tribological behavior of four phosphonium-based room temperature ionic liquids (PRTILs) with trihexyltetradecyl phosphonium [P6,6,6,14] or tributyltetradecyl phosphonium [P4,4,4,14] cations and saccharinate [Sacc] or benzoate [Benz] anions under electrified conditions, targeting potential EV applications. Physicochemical properties, including viscosity and ionic conductivity, were measured using a viscometer and a conductivity meter, while tribological properties were evaluated using an electrified mini-traction machine and an electrified rotary ball-on-disk setup. The results revealed that all the PRTILs exhibited superior tribological (friction and wear) performance than mineral oil with or without electrification. PRTILs with the [Sacc] anion feature a double aromatic ring structure, while those with the [Benz] anion feature a single aromatic ring structure. Under low electrification (10 mA), [P6,6,6,14][Sacc] outperformed [Benz]-based PRTILs, showing a lower coefficient of friction and wear due to their higher viscosity and lower ionic conductivity. Additionally, [P6,6,6,14][Sacc] showed a power loss lower than [P4,4,4,14][Sacc] but higher than [Benz]-based PRTILs under tribo-electrification. The addition of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) reduced the power loss of [P6,6,6,14][Sacc] by 24% by reducing the electric contact resistance. Overall, double-ring aromatic [P6,6,6,14][Sacc] demonstrated superior tribological performance, and GNP additives enhanced their power efficiency, offering a promising pathway for IL-based lubricant development for electrified conditions.more » « less
-
Interactions between ionic liquids and biomolecules are of great interest due to the intrinsic properties of ionic liquids and the flexibility allowed by mixing and matching cations and anions to create unique ionic liquids. A number of ionic liquid–biomolecule studies have focused on interactions with proteins, including industrially relevant enzymes. One of these, laccase from Trametes versicolor, is a naturally derived enzyme used in the breakdown of phenolic compounds in a wide variety of industries, especially useful in breakdown of lignocellulosic materials. Here, a combination of experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was used to investigate the interactions of ionic liquids with laccase. Enzyme kinetics assays indicated that ionic liquids composed of tetramethylguanidine (TMG) and either serine or threonine caused significant reduction in enzymatic activity, while kinetics was not impacted by TMG-Asp or TMG-Glu ionic liquids. Similarly, intrinsic fluorescence of laccase in the presence of TMG-Ser and TMG-Thr exhibited a shift in spectral properties consistent with structural destabilization, but again TMG-Asp and TMG-Glu had no impact. MD simulations of laccase and ABTS with/without TMG-Ser ionic liquid provided insight into the deactivation mechanism of laccase. The simulations indicated that TMG-Ser disrupts laccase’s electron transfer mechanism.more » « less