A study of phase behavior and conductivity of mixtures of the organic ionic plastic crystal N-methyl-N-methyl-pyrrolidinium dicyanamide with sodium dicyanamide

•We present phase behavior for mixtures of sodium dicyanamide and an organic ionic plastic crystal.•High ionic conductivity is observed in the solid state.•Vibrational and NMR spectroscopy are used to identify phase separated morphology.

We report on the thermal, structural and conductivity properties of the organic ionic plastic crystal (OIPC) N-methyl-N-methyl-pyrrolidinium dicyanamide [C1mpyr][N(CN)2] mixed with the sodium salt Na[N(CN)2]. The DSC thermal traces indicate that an isothermal transition, which may be a eutectic melting, occurs at ~ 89 °C, below which all compositions are entirely in the solid phase. At 20 mol% Na[N(CN)2], this transition is the final melt for this mixture, and a new liquidus peak grows beyond 20 mol% Na[N(CN)2]. The III– > II solid–solid phase transition continues to be evident at ~− 2 °C. The microstructure for all the mixtures indicated a phase separated morphology where precipitates can be clearly observed. Most likely, these precipitates consist of a Na-rich second phase. This was also suggested from the vibrational spectroscopy and the 23Na NMR spectra. The lower concentrations of Na[N(CN)2] present complex 23Na MAS spectra, suggesting more than one sodium ion environment is present in these mixtures consistent with complex phase behavior. Unlike other OIPCs where the ionic conductivity usually increases upon doping or mixing in a second component, the conductivity of these mixtures remains relatively constant and above 10− 4 S ⋅ cm− 1 at ~ 80 °C, even in the solid state. Such high conductivities suggest these materials may be promising to be used for all solid-state electrochemical devices.