Femtosecond Raman-Induced Kerr Effect Study of Temperature-Dependent Intermolecular Dynamics in Molten Bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide Salts: Effects of Cation Species.

In this study, we have investigated the effects of cation structures on the temperature dependence of the intermolecular vibrational dynamics of ionic liquids using femtosecond Raman-induced Kerr effect spectroscopy. The ionic liquids used in this study are bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide [NTf2]- salts of the cations 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium [C4MIm]+, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium [Pyrr14]+, 1-butylpyridinium [C4Py]+, butyldiethylmethylammonium [N1224]+, triethyloctylammonium [N2228]+, and triethyloctylphosphonium [P2228]+. All of the ionic liquids show temperature-dependent low-frequency spectra. A difference in the temperature dependence between the spectra of the aromatic and nonaromatic cation based ionic liquids is especially significant. In the case of the aromatic cation based ionic liquids [C4MIm][NTf2] and [C4Py][NTf2], the spectral intensities in the low-frequency region below ca. 50 cm-1 increase and the high-frequency components at ca. 80 cm-1 shift to lower frequencies with rising temperature. In contrast, the ionic liquids based on nonaromatic cations only exhibit an increase in the low-frequency region below ca. 50 cm-1 with increasing temperature, while the high-frequency region of the spectra above ca. 50 cm-1 shows little change with variation of the temperature. These results suggest that the presence or absence of aromatic rings is the main factor in determining the temperature-dependent spectral features, particularly in the high-frequency region. We also found that the alkyl chain length and central atoms of the nonaromatic quaternary cations do not have much influence on the temperature-dependent spectral features. The first moments of the aromatic cation based ionic liquids are a little more sensitive to temperature than those of the nonaromatic cation based ionic liquids. The temperature-dependent viscosities and fragilities of the ionic liquids have also been examined.