Ionic-Liquid Mixtures: from Surface Structure to Catalytic Performance
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| John Slattery (Principal Investigator) | |
| Duncan Bruce (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Cabry CP
(2022)
Small-angle neutron scattering from mixtures of long- and short-chain 3-alkyl-1-methyl imidazolium bistriflimides.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Elstone NS
(2023)
Understanding the Liquid Structure in Mixtures of Ionic Liquids with Semiperfluoroalkyl or Alkyl Chains.
in The journal of physical chemistry. B
Lane PD
(2023)
Superthermal Al Atoms as a Reactive-Atom Probe of Fluorinated Surfaces.
in The journal of physical chemistry. A
Purcell SM
(2022)
Surface Structure of Alkyl/Fluoroalkylimidazolium Ionic-Liquid Mixtures.
in The journal of physical chemistry. B
| Description | The initial phase of the project has been very successful. As proposed, we have prepared a range of highly pure ionic liquid mixtures containing ions with different characteristics. In particular, a significant focus has been on mixtures containing ions with both hydrogenated and fluorinated chains. The physical properties of these mixtures have been characterised and deviations from simple mixing laws identified, which suggest that the bulk and gas-liquid interfacial structures of the liquids vary in unexpected ways as a function of the mixture's composition. These effects have been probed further using in-depth X-ray and neutron scattering experiments, which have made use of the UK's national facilities for these experiments. This has allowed us to understand how the structure of the liquids varies with composition. This new understanding now allows us to design a range of novel ionic liquids with defined liquid structure and properties in a rational way. This will enable us to move to the next stage of the project where the liquids will be investigated in catalytic applications in order to develop more active, selective and sustainable catalysis for chemical synthesis. Update March 2024 - The project continues to progress well. Planned catalytic experiments with our collaborators were undertaken during a visit from the York PDRA to Germany. These have proved very successful, with clear evidence of changes in catalytic performance as a function of the composition of ionic liquid mixtures. This validates the main initial hypothesis and key targets behind the project. In addition, further work investigating the liquid structure of IL mixtures has been successful and additional publications in the area have been published/submitted. |
| Exploitation Route | The project is still ongoing. We are working with our collaborators to further study the fundamental behaviour of the liquid mixtures and apply them in catalytic applications. The results that have already been published will allow others to understand and utilise ionic liquid mixtures more effectively in a range of applications. As the project progresses, and further results are published, we expect additional opportunities for the work to impact on other work being done in both academic and industrial contexts. |
| Sectors | Chemicals Energy |
| Title | Investigating self-organisation in ionic liquid mixtures containing fluorous and aliphatic cations |
| Description | SANS data from instrument time on D16 at the ILL, Grenoble. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The work is currently being written up for dissemination with potential beneficiaries through publication. |
| URL | https://doi.ill.fr/10.5291/ILL-DATA.9-10-1720 |
| Title | Investigating the gas-liquid interface in models of supported ionic liquid phases (SILPs) |
| Description | SILPs, formed of thin films of ILs on porous supports such as Al2O3, are becoming important in industrial catalysis. However, the fundamental nature of the gas-liquid interface in SILPs, and how this evolves during catalysis, is poorly understood. It is proposed to use neutron reflectivity (NR) to complete studies into the surface composition and structure of ILs and IL thin films of relevance to SILP catalysis that were started in RB1920598. Once characterised, the effects of time on stream during the water-gas shift reaction, an important application for SILPs, will be studied by exposing the ILs to atmospheres of known humidity. The experiments will provide much needed insight into the interfacial structure of SILPs and investigate whether surface-active IL ions could be used to modify SILP surfaces and catalytic performance. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Dataset will be made available publically in 2025. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2210195-1 |
| Title | Long length-scale organisation in mixtures of hydrogenous and fluorous ionic liquids |
| Description | Supported ionic liquid phases (SILPs) - ionic liquid (IL) films deposited on a high-surface-area support - are a proven strategy for catalysis, but little is known about optimising the IL for this purpose. It is easy to make new ILs and check their properties, but this is wasteful and ineffective, and it is better to tune IL properties by making mixtures, e.g. ten compounds could make 100's of mixtures. We want to understand, and hence be able to predict, how the properties of the mixtures vary with composition and we are interested in mixtures of ILs where one contains a hydrocarbon and chain and the other a fluorocarbon chain. This leads to a structuring of the liquid film which can affect how the catalyst works and we need to get to the point where we can predict how the mixture composition determines the liquid structure. Neutron scattering can answer these questions for us. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Dataset will be made available publically in 2025. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2220026-1 |
| Description | Collaboration between York (Slattery and Bruce) and IST, Lisbon (Canongia Lopes) |
| Organisation | Technical University of Lisbon |
| Country | Portugal |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We synthesise ionic liquids and undertake experimental measurements to try to understand their properties and applications. In the course of this we often encounter problems that are difficult to provide answers to through experimental studies alone. As such we collaborate with Canongia Lopes and his group, who are experts in atomistic MD simulations, to understand these systems better. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Canongia Lopes and his group are experts in atomistic MD simulations, in particular in the area of ionic liquids. The collaboration between York and Lisbon has already provided a significant new insight into the systems that we are studying and several publications involving this work are being written up at the moment. |
| Impact | Several publications involving this work have been published already and others are in progress. Canongia Lopes is an important collaborator on our project "Ionic-Liquid Mixtures: from Surface Structure to Catalytic Performance". |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Collaboration between York and Heriot-Watt University - surface structure of ionic liquids |
| Organisation | Heriot-Watt University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | York and Heriot-Watt University (HWU) hold linked EPSRC grants for this project and the work is highly collaborative between the two institutions. York is primarily involved in preparing, purifying and characterising ionic liquids (ILs) for the project. In addition, we use a range of physical methods to understand the bulk and gas-liquid interfacial structure of the ILs that we are working on with HWU. |
| Collaborator Contribution | HWU are developing state-of-the-art instrumentation to use reactive-atom scattering (RAS) methods to probe the vacuum-liquid interfacial structure of ILs. |
| Impact | Many publications, all of which have been reported as relevant in previous research fish submissions for a previous EPSRC grant. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Collaboration between York and the Wasserscheid/Haumann research teams at FAU Erlangen |
| Organisation | Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | York have been investigating the synthesis, properties, surface and bulk structure of ionic liquid mixtures. This has developed key understanding into these systems that will allow their rational design for use in supported ionic liquid phase catalysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Wasserscheid/Haumann research teams at FAU Erlangen are world leaders in supported ionic liquid phase catalysis and our collaboration with them will allow ionic liquids developed during our project "Ionic-Liquid Mixtures: from Surface Structure to Catalytic Performance" to be tested on real-world catalytic systems. |
| Impact | New collaboration, so no outcomes so far. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | John Slattery engaged with the UK Catalysis Hub Town Hall Meeting 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Slattery attended this town hall / workshop event and participated in a range of discussions about the future direction of the UK Catalysis Hub. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://ukcatalysishub.co.uk/uk-catalysis-hub-town-meeting/ |
| Description | John Slattery gave a talk at the EMLG-JMLG Annual Meeting 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Slattery gave a talk on progress on studying ionic liquid mixtures for catalysis. The audience was international and cross disciplinary. There were good discussions afterwards about the project and potential for the results to influence the direction of other work in the field. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://emlg2023.sciencesconf.org/ |
| Description | John Slattery gave a talk at the MSILDG Christmas Meeting 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Slattery gave a talk to update the RSC's Molten Salts and Ionic Liquids Discussion Group on progress on understanding ionic liquid mixtures for catalytic applications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.rsc.org/events/detail/77662/2023-msildg-christmas-research-meeting |
| Description | John Slattery gave an oral presentation at the ISIS SANS User Meeting 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | John Slattery gave an oral presentation at the ISIS SANS User Meeting 2023. This was a good opportunity to discuss our experimental approach with experts from STFC national facilities. We got some good feedback from this. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/SANS-user-meeting-2023.aspx |
| Description | John Slattery invited talk at the Workshop sustainable solvents - Friday September 2nd - Ghent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | John Slattery gave an invited talk at the Workshop sustainable solvents - Friday September 2nd - Ghent. This was a meeting involving academic and industrial attendees from across Europe and was a good opportunity to engage with industrial end users of alternative solvents. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ugent.be/greenchem/en/news-events/events/workshop-sustainable-solvents |
| Description | Naomi Elstone oral presentation at the Gordon Conference on Ionic Liquids 2022 meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Naomi Elstone gave an oral presentation at the Gordon Conference on Ionic Liquids 2022 meeting. This led to some interesting discussions afterwards and some feedback from the community on our projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.grc.org/ionic-liquids-conference/2022/ |