Composite nanomaterials based on 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicianamide and clays

Nanocomposites of ionic liquids with layered aluminosilicates represent a new class of functional materials that are promising when creating electrochemical devices, in environmental protection, in biomedicine, etc. Such nanocomposites contain environmentally friendly (clay) and easily regenerable components (ionic liquids), which makes them promising objects of green chemistry. In this paper, the interaction of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ionic liquid with clays such as montmorillonite K10 (MMT K10), bentonite (Bent) and halloysite (Hal), which have a different molecular and mesoporous structure, as well as particles of different size and shape, was studied for the first time. Physicochemical methods such as FT-IR, TG, DSC, electron microscopy, viscosimetry and conductometry were used. The effect of the confinement of ionic liquid in the pores and immobilization on the surface of clays on the physicochemical properties of nanocomposites has been revealed. It was found that the interaction of ionic liquid with clays depends on the type of nanoclay, and the interaction strength changes in the following order: MMT K10 ≈ Bent >> Hal. The resulting materials have the properties of pseudoplasticity, high ionic conductivity, which is promising when creating electrochemical devices. At low temperature, the electrical conductivity of the halloysite-based composite is higher than that of a pure ionic liquid. The conductivity of the studied materials obeys to a general trend, which depends on the specific interactions and the properties of the clay-filled ionic liquid.