The Nature of Ionic Liquids in the Gas Phase

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) experiments showed that when aprotic ionic liquids vaporize under pressure and temperature conditions similar to those of a reduced-pressure distillation, the gas phase is composed of discrete anion-cation pairs. The evolution of the mass spectrometric signals recorded during fractional distillations of binary ionic liquid mixtures allowed us to monitor the changes of the gas-phase composition and the relative volatility of the components. In addition, we have studied a protic ionic liquid, and demonstrated that it exists as separated neutral molecules in the gas phase.