Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are neoteric liquids produced by mixing a high-melting-point salt and a molecular hydrogen-bond donor. Amphiphilic (self-assembled) liquid nanostructure, which is key for many of the useful properties of the related ionic liquid class, has not previously been experimentally demonstrated in DESs. Here we show how amphiphilically nanostructured DESs can be prepared using primary ammonium cations. The bulk structure of alkylammonium bromide (alkyl = ethyl-, propyl-, and butyl) and glycerol DESs at a 1:2 mol ratio is examined using neutron diffraction and empirical potential structure refinement fitting. Analysis reveals cation alkyl chain association, which is the signature of amphiphilic liquid nanostructure, in all systems, which becomes better defined with increasing chain length. The ability to form amphiphilically nanostructured DESs will enable the translation of ionic liquid properties associated with liquid nanostructure to DESs.

The bulk nanostructures of a prototypical 'good' solvate ionic liquid (SIL) and 'poor' SIL have been examined using neutron diffraction and empirical potential structure refinement (EPSR) simulated fits. The good SIL formed by a 1 : 1 mixture of lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (Li[TFSI]) in tetraglyme (G4), denoted [Li(G4)][TFSI], and the poor SIL formed from a 1 : 1 mixture of lithium nitrate (Li[NO3]) in G4, denoted [Li(G4)][NO3], have been studied. In both SILs there are strong Lewis acid-base interactions between Li(+) and ligating O atoms. However, the O atoms coordinated to Li(+) depend strongly on the counter anion present. LiO coordination numbers with G4 are 2-3 times higher for [Li(G4)][TFSI] than [Li(G4)][NO3], and conversely the LiO anion coordination number is 2-3 times higher in [Li(G4)][NO3]. In both solvates the local packing of Li around G4 O atoms are identical but these interactions are less frequent in [Li(G4)][NO3]. In both SILs, Li(+) has a distribution of coordination numbers and a wide variety of different complex structures are present. For [Li(G4)][NO3], there is a significant proportion uncoordinated G4 in the bulk; ∼37% of glyme molecules have no LiO contacts and each G4 molecule coordinates to an average of 0.5 Li(+) cations. Conversely, in [Li(G4)][TFSI] only ∼5% of G4 molecules lack LiO contacts and G4 molecules coordinates to an average of 1.3 Li(+) cations. Li(+) and G4 form polynuclear complexes, of the form [Lix(G4)y](x+), in both solvates. For [Li(G4)][TFSI] ∼35% of Li(+) and G4 form 1 polynuclear complexes, while only ∼10% of Li(+) and G4 form polynuclear complexes in [Li(G4)][NO3].

No abstract