A new way to interpret perturbation-correlation moving-window two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy: probing the dynamic interaction of ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate to absorb atmospheric water.

A rule to interpret perturbation-correlation moving-window two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (PCMW2D) was developed. Compared with Morita's rule, this proposed rule retains the ability to obtain interval features (i.e., monotonicity, concavity, and convexity) and adds the function to quickly and accurately determine both tipping points (i.e., local extrema and inflection points). It could be described as follows: the local extrema and inflection point could be determined by the zero point with an opposite sign on its left and right side in ΠΦ (synchronous PCMW2D) and ΠΨ (asynchronous PCMW2D), respectively. Specifically, a negative left (right) side and a positive right (left) side of point indicates a local minimal (maximal) value. By using the rule to interpret ΠIR (PCMW2D infrared spectroscopy) of 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium acetate [EMIM][Ac]-atmospheric water (H2O) as a function of time, we found that the atmospheric water was absorbed only into the bulk of [EMIM][Ac] before 150 min by hydrogen-bonding interaction, only onto the surface of [EMIM][Ac] after 330 min by van der Waals force, and both to the bulk and surface of [EMIM][Ac] between 150 and 330 min by hydrogen-boding and van der Waals force simultaneously. The proportion of bulk water sorption and surface water sorption to [EMIM][Ac] was about 4 and 96%, respectively.