Structural characterization of propylammonium nitrate and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone mixtures

Abstract Propylammonium nitrate (PAN) ionic liquid and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) are well know compounds employed for many applications in different industrial fields. The most interesting feature is the possibility of modulating the structural properties of the ionic liquid by mixing it with the molecular solvent. A dynamic characterization of the PAN-NMP mixtures is desirable to understand the significant effects on the structural properties and consequently on the chemical-physical features induced by the formation of such solutions. In order to improve the knowledge of the structure of PAN-NMP solutions, useful to the development of their applications, energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXD), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed in this work. Our study evidenced a microheterogeneous solvation of PAN by NMP and indicate the presence of strong attracting interactions between the constituents.