Langmuir, Vol.25, No.17, 9954-9959, 2009
Miscibility and Distribution of Counterions of Imidazolium Ionic Liquid Mixtures at the Air/Water Surface
The miscibility and distribution of Br- and BF4- ions of imidazolium ionic liquid mixtures, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide (HMIMBr) + 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (HMIMBF4), at the air/water surface were investigated by surface tensiometry and the total-reflection XAFS (TRXAFS) method. Tensiometry showed that the surface density of BF4- was much larger than that of Br- the adsorbed films of the HMIMBr-HMIMBF4 mixture were greatly enriched in BF4- at all surface tensions, and the excess Gibbs energy of adsorption was positive. However TRXAFS revealed that the Br ions were all in the free-Br state solvated by six water molecules in the mixed adsorbed film. Entropy-originated nonideal mixing, where a kind of segregation of the counterion distribution takes place in the interfacial region, was suggested in the mixture.