Phase equilibria in ionic liquid-aromatic compound mixtures, including benzene fluorination effects.

This work extends the scope of previous studies on the phase behavior of mixtures of ionic liquids with benzenes or its derivatives by determining the solid-liquid and liquid-liquid phase diagrams of mixtures containing an ionic liquid and a fluorinated benzene. The systems studied include 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide plus hexafluorobenzene or 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium triflate or N-ethyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide plus benzene. The phase diagrams exhibit different kinds of solid-liquid behavior: the (usual) occurrence of eutectic points; the (not-so-usual) presence of congruent melting points and the corresponding formation of inclusion crystals; or the observation of different ionic liquid crystalline phases (polymorphism). These different types of behavior can be controlled by temperature annealing during crystallization or by the nature of the aromatic compound and can be interpreted, at a molecular level, taking into account the structure of the crystals or liquid mixtures, together with the unique characteristics of ionic liquids, namely the dual nature of their interactions with aromatic compounds.