Phase transition and ionic transport mechanism of (C4H9)4NI

Hybrid Nanocomposite Solid Electrolytes (n-C4H9)4NBF4-MgO

Hybrid nanocomposite materials Bu₄NBF₄-MgO were obtained using a nanocrystalline MgO with a specific surface area of 324 m²/g and the grains size of 5.1 nm. As a result of the strong adhesion, the salt transforms into an interface-stabilized amorphous state within the thin layer near the interface. The analysis of the DSC data allowed one to estimate the concentration and the thickness of this amorphous layer as 4.8 nm. The amorphous interface phase has an enhanced ionic conductivity. As a result, conductivity of the nanocomposite increases with the concentration of the amorphous phase and reaches 1.1 × 10^-3 S/cm at 150 °C at a concentration of the MgO additive x = 0.90 corresponding to the maximum content of the amorphous phase. The conductivity of the nanocomposite is by three orders of magnitude higher than the conductivity of pure Bu₄NBF₄. The nanocomposites are electrochemically stable up to 2.5 V. At high concentrations of MgO when the total volume of the salt is small the composites become nano- and mesoporous.

Anhydrous proton-conducting imidazole triflate-SiO2 composite

ImidazoleTriflate (ITF)-SiO₂ composites xITF-(100-x)SiO₂ were prepared by planetary ball-milling method. The structure of the composites was studied by TG-DTA, XRD and FT-IR methods. The ionic conductivity was assessed by alternative current (AC) electrochemical impedance measurement. From XRD results, the crystal size of imidazole triflate became smaller as its loading in xITF-(100-x)SiO₂ decreased. With x = 40 weight percent, the calculated crystal size was about 7.3 nm. FT-IR spectra showed the existence of CF₃SO₃ ^-···H⁺ ion aggregates and imidazole-proton bonds. The electrical conductivity of sample x = 50 was about 6.3 × 10^-3 Scm^-1 at 130 °C under anhydrous condition and about 30 times higher than that of sample x = 100.

Thermal Properties and Ionic Conductivity of Tetra-n-Butylammonium Perchlorate

The thermal parameters of the phase transitions and transport properties of tetra-n-butylammonium (TBA) perchlorate (n-C4H9)4NClO4 (TBAClO4) were investigated. TBAClO4 has a polymorphous transition at 330 K and melts at 487 K. The structure of the high-temperature (HT) phase belongs to cubic symmetry and is similar to the HT phases of TBABF4 and TBAI salts. The conductivity parameters of the low-temperature and HT phases of TBAClO4 were determined from the Arrhenius plots. The thermodynamic parameters and transport properties of TBAClO4 were compared with those of other TBA salts having isostructural HT phases. The polymorphous phase transition entropy was found to correlate with the conductivity of HT phases of TBA salts; TBAClO4 has the lowest conductivity compared to TBABF4 and TBAI salts.

A phase transition caught in mid-course: independent and concomitant analyses of the monoclinic and triclinic structures of (nBu4N)[Co(orotate)2(bipy)]·3H2O

The preparation and characterization of the nBu4N+ salts of two bis-orotate(2-) complexes of cobalt, namely bis(tetra-n-butylammonium) diaquabis(2,4-dioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidin-1-ide-6-carboxylato-κ2N1,O6)cobalt(II) 1.8-hydrate, (C16H36N)2[Co(C5H2N2O4)2(H2O)2]·1.8H2O, (1), and tetra-n-butylammonium (2,2'-bipyridine-κ2N,N')bis(2,4-dioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidin-1-ide-6-carboxylato-κ2N1,O6)cobalt(III) trihydrate, (C16H36N)[Co(C5H2N2O4)2(C10H8N2)]·3H2O, (2), are reported. The CoIII complex, (2), which is monoclinic at room temperature, presents a conservative single-crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition below 200 K, producing a triclinic twin. The transition, which involves a conformational change in one of the nBu groups of the cation, is reversible and can be cycled. Both end phases have been characterized structurally and the system was also characterized structurally in a two-phase intermediate state, using single-crystal diffraction techniques, with both the monoclinic and triclinic phases present. Thermal analysis allows a rough estimate of the small energy content, viz. 0.25 kJ mol-1, for both the monoclinic-to-triclinic transformation and the reverse transition, in agreement with the nature of the structural changes involving only the nBu4N+ cation.

Phase transitions in non-centrosymmetric pyridinium trifluoromethanesulfonate crystal: Vibrational studies

Infrared spectroscopy (4000-400 cm(-1)) in the wide temperature range, from 11 to 473 K, has been used to investigate the non-centrosymmetric pyridinium trifluoromethanesulfonate crystal, exhibiting several phase transitions. The assignments of the bands observed in the studied spectra have been proposed. The temperature dependence of the wavenumbers and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the bands arising from some internal vibrations of the pyridinium cation and the triflate anion have been analyzed in order to achieve a knowledge of whether these both ions are involved in the phase transitions and what is the role of these both ions in these phase transitions. The infrared measurements showed that the both ions, pyridinium cation and triflate anion are involved in the high temperature phase transitions of the order-disorder type, previously reported at 305.1 and 396.7 K. They also revealed that these transitions are governed by a rotational mobility (changes in dynamical states) of both the pyridinium and triflate ions. Our results show that the multiple structures of the νNH and νND bands observed in the studied infrared spectra is due to the Fermi resonance interaction between the stretching vibration of the N-H⋯O hydrogen bond and the overtones and combinations of the internal vibrations of the pyridinium cation.

The structural classification of the highly disordered crystal phases of [Nn][BF4], [Nn][PF6], [Pn][BF4], and [Pn][PF6] salts (Nn(+) = tetraalkylammonium and Pn(+) = tetraalkylphosphonium)

The structures of 16 symmetric tetraalkylammonium (Nn(+)) and tetraalkylphosphonium (Pn(+)) salts ([Nn][BF4], [Nn][PF6], [Pn][BF4], and [Pn][PF6], where n = 1 to 4, and denotes the number of carbon atoms in each alkyl chain) have been investigated by X-ray diffraction in order to elucidate the effect of ion size on the disordered structure of organic salts. All the salts exhibit one or more solid-solid phase transitions in differential scanning calorimetric curves. Powder X-ray diffraction revealed that the highest temperature solid phase of these salts belongs to a crystal system with a high cubic or hexagonal symmetry. The structures are classified into 5 different types: CsCl', NaCl, NaCl', inverse NiAs, and TBPPF6. The CsCl'-type whose octant corresponds to the original CsCl unit cell is observed for [N1][PF6] owing to the orientational difference for the cation or the anion. The NaCl-type structure is observed for the N2(+) and P2(+) salts while the NaCl'-type structure is observed for [N3][PF6], where the configuration of ions is based on the NaCl-type but the four equivalent positions in the original NaCl lattice split into two sets of equivalent positions (three and one). The inverse NiAs structure is observed for [P3][PF6]. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction reveals that the disordering of ions in [P4][PF6] becomes more significant with increasing temperature. The new structure of a cubic phase, the TBPPF6-type structure, is found for the salts with long alkyl chains. The structure is roughly determined at 333 K and the ions therein are highly disordered but not rotating. The validity of the radius ratio rule is confirmed through appropriate assessment of the ion size.