The
extent to which cations and anions in ionic liquids (ILs) and
ionic liquid solutions are dissociated is of both fundamental scientific
interest and practical importance because ion dissociation has been
shown to impact viscosity, density, surface tension, volatility, solubility,
chemical reactivity, and many other important chemical and physical
properties. When mixed with solvents, ionic liquids provide the unique
opportunity to investigate ion dissociation from infinite dilution
in the solvent to a completely solvent-free state, even at ambient
conditions. The most common way to estimate ion dissociation in ILs
and IL solutions is by comparing the molar conductivity determined
from ionic conductivity measurements such as electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy (EIS) (which measure the movement of only the charged,
i.e., dissociated, ions) with the molar conductivity calculated from
ion diffusivities measured by pulse field gradient nuclear magnetic
resonance spectroscopy (PFG-NMR, which gives movement of all of the
ions). Because the NMR measurements are time-consuming, the number
of ILs and IL solutions investigated by this method is relatively
limited. We have shown that use of the Stokes–Einstein equation
with estimates of the effective ion Stokes radii allows ion dissociation
to be calculated from easily measured density, viscosity, and ionic
conductivity data (ρ, η, λ), which is readily available
in the literature for a much larger number of pure ILs and IL solutions.
Therefore, in this review, we present values of ion dissociation for
ILs and IL solutions (aqueous and nonaqueous) determined by both the
traditional molar conductivity/PFG-NMR method and the ρ, η,
λ method. We explore the effect of cation and anion alkyl chain
length, structure, and interaction motifs of the cation and anion,
temperature, and the strength of the solvent in IL solutions.