Examining competing hydration and ion association in the mechanism of LCST behaviour in ionic liquid/water systems

Ionic Liquid (IL) solutions in water that exhibit lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behaviour, where an aqueous solution spontaneously phase separates into two immiscible liquids on increasing temperature, have been identified as potent draw solutes for forward osmosis (FO) water treatment. However the mechanism of induction of LCST behaviour in IL/water systems is not understood. This work aims to examine this phenomena and identify the key changes in association between the different ions and water that drive this behaviour.