An analysis of radical diffusion in ionic liquids in terms of free volume theory

The Heisenberg spin exchange-dipole-dipole separation method was used to measure the translational diffusion coefficients of the N-14-labeled perdeuterated 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-oxopiperidine-1-oxyl (N-14-pDTEMPONE) nitroxide spin probe as a function of temperature in two methylimidazolium ionic liquid series, one based on the tetrafluoroborate (BF4) anion and another one on the bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (TFSI, Tf2N) anion. The obtained translational diffusion coefficients of N-14-pDTEMPONE were analyzed in terms of the Cohen-Turnbull free volume theory. It was found that the Cohen-Turnbull theory describes, exceptionally well, the translational diffusion of N-14-pDTEMPONE in all the ionic liquids in the measured temperature range. In addition, the Cohen-Turnbull theory was applied to the viscosity and self-diffusion coefficients of the cation and anion-taken from literature-in the same ionic liquids. The critical free volume for the self-diffusion of the cation and anion in a given ionic liquid is the same, which suggests that the diffusion of each ionic pair is coordinated. The critical free volumes for the N-14-pDTEMPONE diffusion, self-diffusion, and viscosity for a given cation were about 20% greater in the TFSI based ionic liquids than in the BF4 based ionic liquids. It appears that the ratio of the critical free volumes for a given cation between the two series correlates with the ratio of their densities. Published under license by AIP Publishing.