Structurally Related Scaling Behavior in Ionic Systems

We examine the density scaling properties of two ionic materials, a classic aprotic low molecular weight ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis­(perfluoroethylsulfonyl)­imide ([BMIm]­[BETI]), and a polymeric ionic liquid, poly­(3-methyl-1,2,3-triazolium bis­(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)­imide) (TPIL). Density scaling is known to apply rigorously to simple liquids lacking specific intermolecular associations such as hydrogen bonds. Previous work has found that ionic liquids conform to density scaling over limited ranges of temperature and pressure. In this work, we find that the dc-conductivity of [BMIm]­[BETI] accurately scales for density changes of 17%; however, there is a departure from scaling for TPIL for even more modest variations of temperature and pressure. The entropy of both ionic samples conforms to density scaling only if the scaling exponent is allowed to vary linearly with the magnitude of the entropy.