Analytical Sciences

Ionic Liquid Salt Bridge in Dilute Aqueous Solutions

Takahiro YOSHIMATSU and Takashi KAKIUCHI

Department of Energy and Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan

A new type of salt bridge composed of a hydrophobic room-temperature ionic liquid, recently proposed (T. Kakiuchi and T. Yoshimatsu, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 2006, 79, 1017), has been shown to be satisfactorily usable in dilute aqueous solutions of submillimolar range. A stable phase-boundary potential has been demonstrated between an ionic liquid, 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([C₈mim⁺][C₁C₁N^-), and an aqueous KCl solution of submillimolar level, which is lower than the solubility of [C₈mim⁺][C₁C₁N^-] in water, 1.6 mmol dm^-3 at 25°C. The phase-boundary potential between [C₈mim⁺][C₁C₁N^-] and water is maintained constant over more than four orders of magnitude change in the concentration of an aqueous electrolyte solution. The ionic-liquid salt bridge is a superior alternative to salt bridges based on equitransferent electrolytes in practical applications, particularly, the potentiometry of samples of low ionic strengths, such as potentiometric pH measurements of rainwater.

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