title: Femtosecond solvation dynamics in a neat ionic liquid and ionic liquid microemulsion: excitation wavelength dependence.
abstract: Solvation dynamics in a neat ionic liquid, 1-pentyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetra-flouroborate ([pmim][BF4]) and its microemulsion in Triton X-100 (TX-100)/benzene is studied using femtosecond up-conversion. In both the neat ionic liquid and the microemulsion, the solvation dynamics is found to depend on excitation wavelength (lambda(ex)). The lambda(ex) dependence is attributed to structural heterogeneity in neat ionic liquid (IL) and in IL microemulsion. In neat IL, the heterogeneity arises from clustering of the pentyl groups which are surrounded by a network of cation and anions. Such a nanostructural organization is predicted in many recent simulations and observed recently in an X-ray diffraction study. In an IL microemulsion, the surfactant (TX-100) molecules aggregate in form of a nonpolar peripheral shell around the polar pool of IL. The micro-environment in such an assembly varies drastically over a short distance. The dynamic solvent shift (and average solvation time) in neat IL as well as in IL microemulsions decreases markedly as lambda(ex) increases from 375 to 435 nm. In a [pmim][BF4]/water/TX-100/benzene quaternary microemulsion, the solvation dynamics is slower than that in a microemulsion without water. This is ascribed to the smaller size of the water containing microemulsion. The anisotropy decay in an IL microemulsion is found to be faster than that in neat IL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry, Indian Association for Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700 032, India.
authors.forename: Aniruddha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adhikari
authors.forename: Kalyanasis
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sahu
authors.forename: Shantanu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dey
authors.forename: Subhadip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Ujjwal
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.forename: Kankan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
mesh_terms: D001554:Benzene / Q000737:chemistry*; D001881:Borates / Q000737:chemistry*; D004655:Emulsions / Q000737:chemistry*; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000737:chemistry*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D008970:Molecular Weight; D017830:Octoxynol / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: C525238:1-pentyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetra-fluoroborate; D001881:Borates; D004655:Emulsions; D007093:Imidazoles; D052578:Ionic Liquids; D012997:Solvents; D017830:Octoxynol; D001554:Benzene