Here, two ionic liquids, N-ethoxyethyl-N-methylmorpholinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (M TFSI) and N-ethoxyethyl-N-methylpiperidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (P TFSI) were synthesized and compared. Fundamental relevant properties, such as thermal and electrochemical stability, density, and ionic conductivity were analyzed to evaluate the effects caused by the presence of the ether bond in the side chain and/or in the organic cation ring. Upon lithium salt addition, two electrolytes suitable for lithium batteries applications were found. Higher conducting properties of the piperidinium-based electrolyte resulted in enhanced cycling performances when tested with LiFePO (LFP) cathode in lithium cells. When mixing the P TFSI/LiTFSI electrolyte with a tailored alkyl carbonate mixture, the cycling performance of both Li and Li-ion cells greatly improved, with prolonged cyclability delivering very stable capacity values, as high as the theoretical one in the case of Li/LFP cell configurations.

Amino acid ionic liquids provide suitable media for lyotropic liquid-crystalline systems whose self-organisation behaviour is tuneable by the selection of amino acid anions.

We examined the self-organization behavior of a designed amphiphilic molecule in 20 kinds of amino acid ionic liquids composed of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium cation and natural amino acid anion ([C4mim][AA]). Addition of [C4mim][AA], regardless of their anion species, to the amphiphile provided homogeneous mixtures showing lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LC) behavior. Upon increasing the component ratio of [C4mim][AA] in the mixtures, a successive change of the mesophase patterns from inverted hexagonal columnar, in some case via bicontinuous cubic, to layered phases was observed. By examining the LC properties at various temperatures and component ratios, we constructed lyotropic LC phase diagrams. Interestingly, the appearance of these phase diagrams is greatly different according to the selection of [AA]. Through comparison, we found that the self-organization behavior of an amphiphile in ionic liquids can be tuned by controlling their ability to form hydrogen-bond, van der Waals, and π-π interactions.