Excess molar volumes of binary mixtures (an ionic liquid + water): A review

• Review of excess molar volumes for mixtures of (ionic liquids (ILs) + H2O).
• 6 cation groups reviewed including imidazolium and pyrrolidinium groups.
• 13 anions reviewed including tetraborate, triflate, and hydrogensulphate.
• Effects of anion, cation, and temperature investigated.

This review covers recent developments in the area of excess molar volumes for mixtures of {ILs (1) + H2O (2)} where ILs refers to ionic liquids involving cations: imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, piperidinium, morpholinium and ammonium groups; and anions: tetraborate, triflate, hydrogensulphate, methylsulphate, ethylsulphate, thiocyanate, dicyanamide, octanate, acetate, nitrate, chloride, bromide, and iodine. The excess molar volumes of aqueous ILs were found to cover a wide range of values for the different ILs (ranging from −1.7 cm3 · mol−1 to 1.2 cm3 · mol−1). The excess molar volumes increased with increasing temperature for all systems studied in this review. The magnitude and in some cases the sign of the excess molar volumes for all the aqueous ILs mixtures, apart from the ammonium ILs, were very dependent on temperature. This was particularly important in the dilute IL concentration region. It was found that the sign and magnitude of the excess molar volumes of aqueous ILs (for ILs with hydrophobic cations), was more dependent on the nature of the anion than on the cation.