Understanding Relationships between Free Volume and Oxygen Absorption in Ionic Liquids.

Understanding the factors that govern gas absorption in ionic liquids is critical to the development of high-capacity solvents for catalysis, electrochemistry, and gas separations. Here, we report experimental probes of liquid structure that provide insights into how free volume impacts the O 2 absorption properties of ionic liquids. Specifically, we establish that isothermal compressibility─measured rapidly and accurately through small-angle X-ray scattering─reports on the size distribution of transient voids within a representative series of ionic liquids and is correlated with O 2 absorption capacity. Additionally, O 2 absorption capacities are correlated with thermal expansion coefficients, reflecting the beneficial effect of weak intermolecular interactions in ionic liquids on free volume and gas absorption capacity. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the void size distribution─in particular, the probability of forming larger voids within an ionic liquid─has a greater impact on O 2 absorption than the total free volume. These results establish relationships between the ionic liquid structure and gas absorption properties that offer design strategies for ionic liquids with high gas solubilities.