Study of structure and viscosity correlation in novel ionic liquids.

Ionic Liquids (ILs) have three distinct structural motifs: adjacency correlations, charge alterations, and polar-apolar alterations. Each of these motifs has its own relaxation. These motifs are associated with different length scales and are described by the peaks associated with the structure-function S(Q) and its time-dependent version S(Q,t). X-ray scattering experiments and MD simulations can probe the S(Q). On the other hand, QENS can be used to probe the variation of local dynamics over different length scales associated with the process of charge blurring within the charge networks. The amphiphilic ions show nanoscale domain segregation leading to regions with different local frictions is one of the primary motivations for us to explore neutron scattering methods to measure the dynamics on specific length scales using QENS experiments which addressed by the variation of measured diffusivities across the length scales that define the charge-ordering of these ionic liquids,
Experiments show changing one atom or functional group of IL anion or cation results in a noticeable change in viscosity, while the liquid structure is largely unaffected. By combining NMR measurements together with molecular dynamics from QENS and the measured and calculated liquid factors, we plan to resolve the connections between ILs structure from glassy-state to liquid state, dynamics, and ion self-diffusivities and how these combines to determine the bulk liquid shear viscosities.