Excess enthalpy of monoethanolamine + ionic liquid mixtures: how good are COSMO-RS predictions?

Mixtures of ionic liquids (ILs) and molecular amines have been suggested for CO2 capture applications. The basic idea is to replace water, which volatilizes in the amine regeneration step and increases the parasitic energy load, with a nonvolatile ionic liquid solvent. To fully understand the thermodynamics of these systems, here experimental excess enthalpies for binary mixtures of monoethanolamine (MEA) and two ILs: 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [hmim][NTf2], and 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [OHemim][NTf2], were obtained by calorimetry, using a Setaram C80 calorimeter, over the whole range of compositions at 313.15 K. Since it is the temperature derivative of the Gibbs energy, enthalpy is a sensitive measure of intermolecular interactions. MEA + [hmim][NTf2] is endothermic and MEA + [OHemim][NTf2] is exothermic. The reliability of COSMO-RS to predict the excess enthalpy of the (MEA+IL) systems was tested based on the implementation of two different molecular models to define the structure of the IL: the IL as separate cation and anion [C+A] and the IL as a bonded single specie [CA]. Quantum-chemical calculations were performed to gain additional insight into the intermolecular interactions between the components of the mixture. For MEA + [hmim][NTf2] both the [C+A] and [CA] models predict endothermic behavior, but the [CA] model is in better agreement with the experimental results. For MEA + [OHemim][NTf2] the [C+A] model provides the best match to the experimental exothermic results. However, what is really surprising is that two different conformations of the cation-anion pair with nearly identical energies in the [CA] model result in completely different (exothermic vs endothermic) predictions of the excess enthalpy. Nonetheless, the results do show that the influence of the structure of the IL on the thermodynamic behavior of the mixture (endothermic vs exothermic) can be attributed to hydrogen bonding between the cation and the MEA molecule. However, this study highlights the importance of carefully selecting the molecular model and conformation in order to obtain even qualitatively correct predictions with COSMO-RS. The fact that even very slightly different conformations of the IL can drastically change the thermodynamic estimations using COSMO-RS is of significant concern. Overall, we believe the present work provides a better understanding of the behavior of mixtures involving amines and ILs, which is an important aspect to consider when evaluating the use of such solvent mixtures in CO2 capture technologies.