“…With respect to nitrogen-containing heterocycles used in this study, the N -methyimidazole is more basic than the 1,2,4-1 H -triazole and is therefore a better proton acceptor. The p K a values of conjugated acids of these heterocycles are 7.05 and 2.27, respectively. , In the ideal case, the proton transfer from the acid to the base is complete, such that the only individual species present are the resulting cations and anions. However, for large counterions this is unlikely since the proton transfer may be less than complete, resulting in the neutral acid and base species being present, and therefore aggregation and association of either ions or neutral species can occur. , This feature should be taken into account when considering the dissociation of ionic groups of the proposed HBP-ILs.…”