Absorption of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, ethane and nitrogen by 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium (C(n)mim, n = 2,4,6) tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate ionic liquids (eFAP).

We measured the densities of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium (C(n)mim, n = 2,4,6) tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate ionic liquids (eFAP) as a function of temperature and pressure and their viscosities as a function of temperature. These ionic liquids are less viscous than those based in the same cations but with other anions such as bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide. The ionic liquids studied are only partially miscible with water, their solubility increasing with the size of the alkyl side-chain of the cation and with temperature (from x(H(2)O) = 0.20 ± 0.03 for [C(4)mim][eFAP] at 303.10 K to x(H(2)O) = 0.49 ± 0.07 for [C(6)mim][eFAP] at 315.10 K). The solubility of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, ethane, and nitrogen in the three ionic liquids was measured as a function of temperature and at pressures close to atmospheric. Carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are the more soluble gases with mole fraction solubilities of the order of 3 × 10(-2) at 303 K. The solubility of these gases does not increase linearly with the size of the alkyl-side chain of the cation. The solubilities of ethane and nitrogen are much lower than those of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide (mole fractions 60% and 90% lower, respectively). The higher solubility of CO(2) and N(2)O can be explained by more favorable interactions between the solutes and the polar region of the ionic liquids as shown by the enthalpies of solvation determined experimentally and by the calculation of the site-site solute-solvent radial distribution functions using molecular simulation.