When like-charged ions attract: How charge-defects influence the size and distribution of cationic clusters in ionic liquids

This study will probe the liquid nanostructures of mixtures of the ionic liquid (IL), 4-(hydroxybutyl)-pyridinium-bis(trifluorosulfonyl)-imide [HOC4Py]NTf2 and its neutral mimic 4-Phenyl-1-butanol, which are identical except that the nitrogen of the cation is replaced by a carbon, which leads to a neutral alcohol molecule. Hence, Coulomb repulsion is expected in [HOC4Py]NTf2 within the formation of cation-cation clusters but not for the neutral, which will reveal the effect of the alcohol H-bonding unambiguously. We will determine how the defects of charges and the increase of H-bonding in the IL will influence the cluster distribution and the most probable cluster structures. Furthermore, we will figure out how strongly the additional hydrogen bonding controls the subtle equilibrium between cation-cation- and cation-anion-based aggregates.