Thermodynamic and thermophysic properties of ionic liquids and their mixtures with other fluids

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Heintz
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Molecules, Liquids and Interfaces, Biophysical Chemistry
• Term: from 2002 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5382165

Ionic liquids (IL) are nonaqueous systems (mainly organic salts composed of bulky univalent ions) with melting points near or below room temperature. They have been attracting recently attention for their potential to become novel technological fluids: information is available particularly on their media for homogeneous catalysis. IL are claimed to be "green solvent" since they are non-inflammable, non-volatile, easy to recycle and often non-toxic. They are, however, at this stage expensive, not always easy to prepare with physical properties and stability highly affected by impurities. A more realistic estimation of the real potential of IL is hampered by the lack of data on physico-chemical properties. This project is submitted by a consortium of two German and two French teams bringing together specialists in physical chemistry on one side and experts in preperation of IL on the other side. Three partners are based in academic institution and the fourth partner belongs to an organisation of applied industrial research. Two teams acting on the basis of complementarity will carry out research on thermodynamic and thermophysical properies o 6 selected IL, pure and in mixeture with water and organic liquids and several gases. All the sample of IL will be prepared by the third team in ultra high quality. The fourth (industrial) partner will interact with other teams on the consulting bases. A unique feature will be the measurement on samples containing well known amounts of specified admixtures in order to investigate influence of impurities on measured properties. The new data will be obtained for the following properties: density and viscosity, temperature of fusion, thermal stability, heat capacity, solubility of gases in IL, miscibility of IL with H2O and C6 organic compounds, activity coefficients, electric conductivity and surface tension. The temperatures ranges of the investigation will go for some properties up to 200°C. The important physicochemical dimension of the project will be molecular simulation of IL pure and in mixtures. This project can be considered as a basic for a later proposal of a wider European network on IL.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Vladimir Mayer; Privatdozentin Dr. Hélène Olivier-Bourbigou