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Viscosity Measurements on Ionic Liquids: A Cautionary Tale

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Abstract

The vibrating-wire viscometer has proven to be an exceedingly effective means of determining the viscosity of liquids over a wide range of temperature and pressure. The instrument has a long history but a variety of technological and theoretical developments over a number of years have improved its precision and most recently have enabled absolute measurements of high accuracy. However, the nature of the electrical measurements required for the technique has inhibited its widespread use for electrically conducting liquids so that there have been only a limited number of measurements. In the particular context of ionic liquids, which have themselves attracted considerable attention, this is unfortunate because it has meant that one primary measurement technique has seldom been employed for studies of their viscosity. In the last 2 years systematic efforts have been made to explore the applicability of the vibrating-wire technique by examining a number of liquids of increasing electrical conductivity. These extensions have been successful. However, in the process we have had cause to review previous studies of the viscosity and density of the same liquids at moderate temperatures and pressures and significant evidence has been accumulated to cause concern about the application of a range of viscometric techniques to these particular fluids. Because the situation is reminiscent of that encountered for a new set of environmentally friendly refrigerants at the end of the last decade, in this paper the experimental methods employed with these liquids have been reviewed which leads to recommendations for the handling of these materials that may have consequences beyond viscometric measurements. In the process new viscosity and density data for 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide [\({\mathrm{C}}_{6}\)mim][\({\mathrm{NTf}}_{2}\)], 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate [\({\mathrm{C}}_{2}\)mim][\({\mathrm{EtSO}}_{4}\)], and 1-ethyl-3-methylpyridinium ethyl sulfate [\({\mathrm{C}}_{2}\)mpy][\({\mathrm{EtSO}}_{4}\)] have been obtained.

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Acknowledgments

This work was developed under Projects PTDC/QUI/66826/2006 and PTDC/EQU-EPR/103505/2008 and was also partially supported by the Multiannual Funding to Centro de Química Estrutural and by the Strategic Project PEst-OE/QUI/UI0100/2011, all funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal). The authors acknowledge the permission of Elsevier B.V. to reproduce in this article (see Tables 1, 2) Tables 6a and 6b of the paper “Viscosity Measurements of Three Ionic Liquids Using the Vibrating Wire Technique”, taken from Ref. [22]. The authors also acknowledge the grant attributed to J.C.F.D. under the above mentioned project PTDC/66826/2006. Furthermore, J.C.F.D. thanks FCT, Portugal, for his PhD grant (SFRH / BD / 66736 / 2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Química Estrutural, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 , Lisbon, Portugal

    João C. F. Diogo, Fernando J. P. Caetano, João M. N. A. Fareleira & William A. Wakeham

  2. Universidade Aberta, R. da Escola Politécnica, 147, 1269-001 , Lisbon, Portugal

    Fernando J. P. Caetano

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  1. João C. F. Diogo
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  2. Fernando J. P. Caetano
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  3. João M. N. A. Fareleira
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  4. William A. Wakeham
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Correspondence to William A. Wakeham.

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Diogo, J.C.F., Caetano, F.J.P., Fareleira, J.M.N.A. et al. Viscosity Measurements on Ionic Liquids: A Cautionary Tale. Int J Thermophys 35, 1615–1635 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-013-1487-y

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