On the Regular Behavior of a Binary Mixture of Ionic Liquids

Binary mixtures of the ionic liquids 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide and tributyl­(methyl)­ammonium dicyanamide, [C2C1im] x [N4441](1–x)[N­(CN)2], are studied by means of their excess properties (enthalpy and volume), their viscosity, and their Raman spectra. The mixtures exhibit positive values of excess volume V E and excess enthalpy H E. The plot of the logarithm of viscosity as a function of composition is consistent with the finding H E > 0. The excess thermodynamic properties of the ionic liquid mixtures are compared with well-known results for binary mixtures of (high-temperature) molten salts. The asymmetry of the curve H E versus composition is reproduced by considering the volumetric fraction of the [C2C1im] x [N4441](1–x)[N­(CN)2] mixtures according to basic results of the theory of regular solutions. The anion totally symmetric stretching mode νs(CN) was used to probe the local environment around the anion in a Raman spectroscopy investigation of the [C2C1im] x [N4441](1–x)[N­(CN)2] mixtures as a function of the composition. The Raman band shape (peak frequency and bandwidth) of the νs(CN) mode changes as expected from the fluctuation of concentration around the probe oscillator according to models for vibrational spectroscopy of liquid mixtures. This thermodynamic and spectroscopic study leads to the classification of the [C2C1im] x [N4441](1–x)[N­(CN)2] mixture as a regular solution. The application of the regular solution equation for H E to other ionic liquid binary mixtures is discussed.