Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening.

ABSTRACT: Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unusual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behaviour at electrified interfaces remains elusive, with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. Using tuning-fork-based atomic force microscope nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTILs, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of the shift of the freez

SUBMITTER: Comtet J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5446787 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature