Group contribution methods for the prediction of thermophysical and transport properties of ionic liquids

Thermophysical and transport properties of ionic liquids are required for the design of processes and products. Yet the experimental data available are scarce and often contradictory. Based on experimental data collected from the literature, group contribution methods were developed for the estimation of viscosity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, refractive index, isobaric expansivity, and isothermal compressibility, of various families of ionic liquids. Using the Stokes-Einstein relation a correlation for the self-diffusion coefficients with the viscosity is also proposed. The results of the proposed models show average absolute relative deviations generally of the same order of the experimental accuracy of the data. They are easy to use and can provide predictions of property values for ionic liquids never previously studied. The group contribution basis of these models will allow them to be extended to new groups of cations and anions as further data became available. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009