Physical trends and structural features in organic salts of the thiocyanate anion

Abstract

A new series of ionic liquids based on the thiocyanate anion has been prepared. Incorporation of this anion with an imidazolium, tetraalkylammonium or pyrrolidinium cation produces ionic liquids with advantageously low melting points and good thermal stability. The low temperature phase behaviour of the salts has been investigated using differential scanning calorimetry and multiple solid phases have been observed. The electrochemical windows of representative imidazolium and pyrrolidinium species have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry and determined to be 2.4 and 3.5 V, respectively. In addition, the solid-state structure of N,N-dimethylpyrrolidinium thiocyanate has been determined by X-ray crystallography. This is the first reported structure of a pyrrolidinium thiocyanate species and shows a layered structure with linear thiocyanate groups having bond lengths comparable to those observed in similar SCN⁻-containing species.