What is it about?
Ionic liquids are promising for many applications, but they often don't flow easily. Here we compare an ionic liquid (charged molecules) with a very similar conventional liquid (uncharged molecules). It turns out that more than one contribution is relevant for flow, which is important for the design of future applications.
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Why is it important?
Ionic liquids are an emerging class of designer liquids with a wide range of applications. Examples of applications are electrolytes in (Lithium) batteries, working fluids under extreme conditions such as the vacuum of space, or biomass processing. Each of these applications requires a liquid with a very specific set of properties. Being able to manipulate the properties of ionic liquids is absolutely crucial to live up to the promise of "designer liquids".
Perspectives
This work opens exciting opportunities for new research, for example using molecular dynamics simulations, or models which explicitly consider (and unite) the different contributions to viscous flow.
Frederik Philippi
Imperial College London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Pressing matter: why are ionic liquids so viscous?, Chemical Science, January 2022, Royal Society of Chemistry,
DOI: 10.1039/d1sc06857a.
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