Evidence of a phase transition in water-1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and water-1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate mixtures at 298 K: determination of the surface thermal coefficient, bT,P.

We studied the aggregation behavior of two short-chain room-temperature ionic liquids. Previous surface tension studies have shown that 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bmimBF(4)) aggregates in water. We observed the same behavior for another ionic liquid, 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bdmimBF(4)). We carried out a thermodynamic study of the mixtures between water and the two butylimidazolium salts to investigate this unusual behavior for cations with short chains by determining the surface thermal coefficient, b(T,P). Plotting b(T,P) as a function of the molar fraction (X) of the two salts showed a clear discontinuity at X = 0.016 for bmimBF(4) and X = 0.004 for bdmimBF(4). This discontinuity could be attributed to a transition such as an aggregation.