Probing the Aggregation Behavior of Neat Imidazolium-Based Alkyl Sulfate (Alkyl = Ethyl, Butyl, Hexyl, and Octyl) Ionic Liquids through Time Resolved Florescence Anisotropy and NMR and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy Study.

Aggregation behavior of a series of neat 1-ethyl 3-methylimidazolium alkyl sulfate (alkyl = ethyl, butyl, hexyl, and octyl) ionic liquids has been investigated through combined time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, 1-D and 2-D NMR spectroscopy, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Interestingly, experimentally measured rotational relaxation times (τr) for ethyl, butyl, hexyl and octyl systems are measured to be 2.25, 1.64, 1.36, and 1.32 times higher than the estimated (from Stokes-Einstein-Debye theory) values for the same respective systems. This indicates that the emitting species is not the monomeric imidazolium moiety rather an associated species, and volume of the rotating fluorescing species decreases even though the length of the alkyl moiety on the anions is increased. The shift in the (1)H proton signal as well as a change in the width of the same signal upon dilution of the neat ionic liquids indicates that ionic liquids exist in the aggregated form. Further investigation through the 2D-ROESY experiment shows that interaction between imidazolium and sulfate is relatively stronger in the ethyl system than that of the longer octyl system. FCS measurements independently show that the hydrodynamic volume decreases with an increase in the anion chain length. The NMR and FCS results are consistent with the findings of the fluorescence anisotropy study.