TRANSPORT PROPERTIES FOR 1-ETHYL-3-METHYLIMIDAZOLIUM n-ALKYL SULFATES: POSSIBLE EVIDENCE OF GROTTHUSS MECHANISM

Abstract The objective of this work was to study the effect of the temperature and the lengthening of the linear alkyl chain of the anion in the transport physical properties of the pure ionic liquids 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium n-alkyl sulphate (being n = 0, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8). Density, viscosity and electrical conductivities were measured at atmospheric pressure in a wide temperature range. In the bibliography, data existed for these magnitudes for all ionic liquids studied but none of these had information about the electrical conductivity of 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium n-alkyl sulfate whith n = 0, 4, 6 and 8. The experimental results show clearly 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium hydrogen sulphate cannot be considered part of the 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium n-alkyl sulphate family because of its hydrogen bonding ability. Results of density and viscosity behave as expected. However, in the case of the electrical conductivity due to the lack of alkyl chain in the hydrogen sulfate we expected to get extreme values but in practise, we obtained intermediate values between 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium butyl sulphate and 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium hexyl sulphate. This suggests that a Grotthus mechanism exists as result of a protonic current in addition to ionic conductivity, being Waldens plot consistent with this idea.