Viscosities
obtained with a falling-body viscometer are reported
at pressures up to 300 MPa, over the temperature range 278–353
K, for 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([BMIM][Ac]) samples dried
under high vacuum with water content [106 × w(H2O) = 258 and 1180] and ion purity x > 0.992. Atmospheric pressure densities are reported
for
273–363 K. Comparison is made with literature viscosities and
densities at 0.1 MPa. There is a very large variation in the former,
which seems in part due to differences in the purities of the source
materials. It is recommended that methanol-free reagents should be
used for Karl Fischer water analysis of ionic liquid acetates and
that samples used for thermophysical property measurements should
be well characterized by spectroscopic methods, not just water content.
The proton resonance at the C2 position on the imidazolium ring appears
to be a good qualitative indication of the dryness. “Activation”
volumes, ΔV
‡, are calculated
from the parameters of a fit to a pressure-modified Vogel–Fulcher–Tamman
(VFT) equation and compared with those for other 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium
ionic liquids. Thermodynamic or density scaling has been applied to
the reduced viscosity as a function of the group (TV
γ), γ being the single scaling parameter,
equal to 2.02.