title: Understanding the mechanism of LCST phase separation of mixed ionic liquids in water by MD simulations.
abstract: Recently, it has been found experimentally that two different amino acid ionic liquids (ILs) can be mixed to show unique lowest critical solution temperature (LCST) phase separation in water. However, little is known about the mechanism of phase separation in these IL/water mixtures at the molecular level. In this work, five kinds of amino acid ILs were chosen to study the mechanism of LCST-type phase separation by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Toward this end, a series of all-atom MD simulations were carried out on the ternary mixtures consisting of two different ILs and water at different temperatures. The various interaction energies and radial distribution functions (RDFs) were calculated and analyzed for these mixed systems. It was found that for amino acid ILs, the -NH2 or -COOH group of one anion could have a hydrogen bonding interaction with the -COO(-) group of another anion. With the increase of temperature, this kind of hydrogen bonding interaction between anions was strengthened and then the anion-H2O electrostatic interaction was weakened, which led to the LCST-type phase separation of the mixed ILs in water. In addition, a series of MD simulations for [P6668]1[Lys]n[Asp]1-n/H2O systems were also performed to study the effect of the mixing ratio of ILs on phase separation. It was also noted that the experimental critical composition corresponding to the lowest critical solution temperature was well predicted from the total electrostatic interaction energies as a function of mole fraction of [P6668][Lys] in these systems. The conclusions drawn from this study may provide new insight into the LCST-type phase behavior of ILs in water, and motivate further studies on practical applications.
authors: Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Green Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Media and Reactions, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan 453007, P. R. China. jwang@htu.cn.
authors: Yuling
authors: Y
authors: Zhao
authors: Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Green Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Media and Reactions, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan 453007, P. R. China. jwang@htu.cn.
authors: Huiyong
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Green Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Media and Reactions, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan 453007, P. R. China. jwang@htu.cn.
authors: Yuanchao
authors: Y
authors: Pei
authors: Division of Molecular and Materials Simulation, State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, P. R. China.
authors: Zhiping
authors: Z
authors: Liu
authors: Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Green Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Media and Reactions, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan 453007, P. R. China. jwang@htu.cn.
authors: Jianji
authors: J
authors: Wang