Influence of different branched alkyl side chains on the properties of imidazolium-based ionic liquids

Several new branched ionic liquids were synthesized under microwave irradiation applying two different synthetic approaches. Different already known ionic liquids, both linear and branched, were added to this set of new ionic liquids to investigate the influence of the branching on the thermophysical properties to elucidate first structure–property relationships. Thermogravimetric analysis was utilized to investigate the decomposition behavior and differential scanning calorimetry was used to study the influence of the branching on the thermal behavior, e.g. the melting point, the glass transition temperature, the freezing point and the cold crystallization temperature. Moreover, the water uptake of selected ionic liquids was analyzed.