Proton hopping and long-range transport in the protic ionic liquid [Im][TFSI], probed by pulsed-field gradient NMR and quasi-elastic neutron scattering.

The management of proton conductivity in the protic ionic liquid imidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([Im][TFSI]) is investigated via the use of quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) and pulsed-field gradient NMR. The introduction of excess neutral imidazole to [Im][TFSI] leads to enhanced conductivity. We find that proton dynamics in [Im][TFSI] with excess imidazole are characterized by proton hopping that is encompassed in the slower of two translational processes, as identified by QENS. This relatively slow process contributes to long-range diffusion more than the faster process. NMR diffusion measurements show that proton hopping decreases with increasing temperature, but significant proton hopping persists even at the maximum experimental temperature of 120 °C. This, in combination with minimal ion aggregation, leads to high proton conductivity and a high proton transference number over a wide temperature range.