- Title
- Amphiphilic self-assembly of alkanols in protic ionic liquids
- Creator
- Jiang, Haihui Joy; FitzGerald, Paul A.; Dolan, Andrew; Atkin, Rob; Warr, Gregory G.
- Relation
- Journal of Physical Chemistry B Vol. 118, Issue 33, p. 9983-9990
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp504998t
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- Strong cohesive forces in protic ionic liquids (PILs) can induce a liquid nanostructure consisting of segregated polar and apolar domains. Small-angle X-ray scattering has shown that these forces can also induce medium chain length n-alkanols to self-assemble into micelle- and microemulsion-like structures in ethylammonium (EA(+)) and propylammonium (PA(+)) PILs, in contrast to their immiscibility with both water and ethanolammonium (EtA(+)) PILs. These binary mixtures are structured on two distinct length scales: one associated with the self-assembled n-alkanol aggregates and the other with the underlying liquid nanostructure. This suggests that EA(+) and PA(+) enable n-alkanol aggregation by acting as cosurfactants, which EtA(+) cannot do because its terminating hydroxyl renders the cation nonamphiphilic. The primary determining factor for miscibility and self-assembly is the ratio of alkyl chain lengths of the alkanol and PIL cation, modulated by the anion type. These results show how ILs can support the self-assembly of nontraditional amphiphiles and enable the creation of new forms of soft matter.
- Subject
- ionic liquids; alkanols; self-assembly; small-angle X-ray scattering
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1049125
- Identifier
- uon:14997
- Identifier
- ISSN:1520-5207
- Rights
- This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp504998t
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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