Communication: Investigation of ion aggregation in ionic liquids and their solutions with lithium salt under high...

X-ray scattering measurements were utilized to probe the effects of pressure on a series of ionic liquids, N-alkyl-N-methyl-pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Pyr_1A-TFSI) (A = 3, 6, and 9), along with mixtures of ionic liquid and 30 mol. % lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) salt. No evidence was found for crystallization of the pure ionic liquids or salt mixtures even at pressures up to 9.2 GPa. No phase separation or demixing was observed for the ionic liquid and salt mixtures. Shifts in the peak positions are indicative of compression of the ionic liquids and mixtures up to 2 GPa, after which samples reach a region of relative incompressibility, possibly indicative of a transition to a glassy state. With the application of pressure, the intensity of the prepeak was found to decrease significantly, indicating a reduction in cation alkyl chain aggregation. Additionally, incompressibility of the scattering peak associated with the distance between like-charges in the pure ionic liquids compared to that in mixtures with lithium salt suggests that the application of pressure could inhibit Li⁺ coordination with TFSI^- to form Li[TFSI₂]^- complexes. This inhibition occurs through the suppression of TFSI^- in the trans conformer, in favor of the smaller cis conformer, at high pressures.