On the concept of ionicity in ionic liquids

Ionic liquids are liquids comprised totally of ions. However, not all of the ions present appear to be available to participate in conduction processes, to a degree that is dependent on the nature of the ionic liquid and its structure. There is much interest in quantifying and understanding this 'degree of ionicity' phenomenon. In this paper we present transport data for a range of ionic liquids and evaluate the data firstly in terms of the Walden plot as an approximate and readily accessible approach to estimating ionicity. An adjusted Walden plot that makes explicit allowance for differences in ion sizes is shown to be an improvement to this approach for the series of ionic liquids described. In some cases,…