One-Pot synthesis and interfacial activity of imidazolium ionic liquid surfactants with double-chain hydrophobic

•Three double-chain imidazolium ionic liquids surfactants were synthesized via the one-step Debus-Radziszewski reaction and characterized for their chemical structure by FT-IR, 1H NMR, TGA and LC-MS.•The physicochemical properties of double-chain imidazolium ionic liquids surfactants are better than that of single-chain imidazolium surfactants.•[C14mimC14][OAc] had lowest surface tension and critical micelle concentration, which were 29.07 mN/m and 1.64 × 10-2 mmol/L, respectively.•Double-chain imidazolium ionic liquids surfactants have good interfacial activity and wettability. Three double-chain imidazolium ionic liquid surfactants (ILS) with varying alkyl lengths, namely [C10mimC10][OAc], [C12mimC12][OAc], and [C14mimC14][OAc], were synthesized via the one-step Debus-Radziszewskireaction. The chemical structures of these three ILS were confirmed through FT-IR, 1H NMR and ESI-MS analyses. Their surface/interface activity, wetting ability, thermal stability, and aggregation properties were investigated. The results indicated that the presence of double-chain hydrophobic groups in ILS exerted a significant influence on their surface/interface activity. Surface activity and micellization properties were assessed using surface tension measurements, revealing that the micellization process of double-chain ILS was more favorable compared to single-chain ILS. Among the three ILS examined, [C14mimC14][OAc] exhibited the lowest surface tension and critical micelle concentration (CMC) values, measuring 29.07 mN/m and 1.64 × 10-2 mmol/L, respectively. Solutions containing approximately 50 ppm of these ILS could reduce interfacial tension to below 1 mN/m. Additionally, the contact angle decreased to less than 90° within 90 s. The formation of aggregates in aqueous solutions was found to be influenced by the number of CH2 units present in the different ILS molecules.