Elimination of Interionic Hydrogen Bonding in The Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids

Hydrogen bonding is a phenomenon of paramount importance in room-temperature ionic liquids. The presence or absence of the hydrogen bond drastically alternates self-diffusion, shear viscosity, phase transition points, and other key properties of a pure substance. For certain applications, the presence of cation-anion hydrogen bonding is undesirable. In the present paper, we investigate perspectives of removing the hydrogen...fluorine interionic attraction in the imidazolium borates, the strongest non-covalent interaction in this type of system. Chemical modification of the tetrafluoroborate anion not only eliminates hydrogen bonding but also changes the most thermodynamically preferable orientation of the cation in the vicinity of the anion. Although the most acidic hydrogen atom of the imidazole ring remains the paramount electrophilic center of the cation, it does not engender a strong electrostatically driven coordination pattern with the properly modified anions. The reported new physical insights help compose more robust ionic liquids and tune solvation properties of the imidazolium-based RTILs.

In-situ removal of surface molybdenum oxide making binder-free porous Mo1.98C1.02 film as a more efficient electrocatalyst for alkaline than for acidic hydrogen production

Binder-free structure is beneficial for effective electron transport in electrocatalysts. Although metallic carbide has been well demonstrated as a kind of efficient electrocatalyst in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), the binder-free...

In-situ Surface Reduction to Accessing Atomically Dispersed Platinum on Carbon Sheets for Acidic Hydrogen Evolution

Exploring simple yet well-controlled synthesis to atomically dispersed Pt catalysts is a crucial endeavor for harvesting clean hydrogen via the kinetics-favored acidic electrochemical water splitting technique. Here we employ the...