Synthesis, NMR, Raman, thermal and nonlinear optical properties of dicationic ionic liquids from experimental and theoretical studies

Two new di-cationic imidazolium based ionic liquids (ILs) containing chloride, (bisImCl), or hexafluorophosphate anions (bisImPF6) have been synthesized and characterized by FT-Raman and 1H- and 13C NMR spectroscopies. The p-xylyl group acts a spacer between two imidazolium rings in the cation. The influence of the anions on thermal properties of the compounds has been investigated. Both bisImCl and bisImPF6 have shown good thermal stability up to at least 280 °C. Intermolecular and cation-anion interactions have been investigated by NMR spectroscopy. B3LYP/6-311++G∗∗ calculations have optimized the structure of bisIm cation with both anions. Both Cl are found to be in a monodentate coordination, while in bisImPF6 only one PF6 group presents monodentate coordination. AIM calculations at the same level of theory have evidenced a higher number of interactions in bisImPF6, as compared to bisImCl. A complete assignment of the vibrational frequencies for the cation, bisImCl and bisImPF6 are here reported together with a set of harmonic scaled force constants calculated for the cation and bisImCl. Further, polarizability (α) and the static first hyperpolarizabilities (β) of these ILs are calculated by different DFT functionals in order to understand nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. It is observed an inverse correlation between the predicted β value and the HOMO-LUMO energy difference (Δε) from two state models. The high gap value observed for bisImPF6 justifies its low reactivity, as supported by the high number of interactions predicted for this ionic liquid.