AUTHOR=Lo Celso Fabrizio , Appetecchi Giovanni B. , Simonetti Elisabetta , Zhao Man , Castner Edward W. , Keiderling Uwe , Gontrani Lorenzo , Triolo Alessandro , Russina Olga 

TITLE=Microscopic Structural and Dynamic Features in Triphilic Room Temperature Ionic Liquids

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2019.00285

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2019.00285

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Here we report a thorough investigation of the microscopic and mesoscopic structural organization in a series of triphilic fluorinated room temperature ionic liquids, namely [1-alkyl,3-methylimidazolium][(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)(nonafluorobutylsulfonyl)imide], with alkyl = ethyl, butyl, octyl ([C<sub>n</sub>mim][IM<sub>14</sub>], <italic>n</italic> = 2, 4, 8), based on the synergic exploitation of X-ray and Neutron Scattering and Molecular Dynamics simulations. This study reveals the strong complementarity between X-ray/neutron scattering in detecting the complex segregated morphology in these systems at mesoscopic spatial scales. The use of MD simulations delivering a very good agreement with experimental data allows us to gain a robust understanding of the segregated morphology. The structural scenario is completed with determination of dynamic properties accessing the diffusive behavior and a relaxation map is provided for [C<sub>2</sub>mim][IM<sub>14</sub>] and [C<sub>8</sub>mim][IM<sub>14</sub>], highlighting their natures as fragile glass formers.</p>