A simple guiding principle for the temperature dependence of the solubility of light gases in imidazolium-based ionic liquids derived from molecular simulations

We have determined the temperature dependence of the solvation behavior of a large collection of important light gases in imidazolium-based ionic liquids with the help of extensive molecular dynamics simulations. The motivation of our study is to unravel common features of the temperature dependent solvation under well controlled conditions, and to provide a guidance for cases, where experimental data from different sources disagree significantly. The solubility of molecular hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, methane, krypton, argon, neon and carbon dioxide in the imidazolium based ionic liquids of type 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([Cnmim][NTf2]) with varying alkyl side chain lengths n = 2, 4, 6, 8 is computed for a temperature range between 300 K and 500 K at 1 bar. By applying Widom's particle insertion technique and Bennet's overlapping distribution method, we are able to determine the temperature dependent solvation free energies of those selected light gases in simulated imidazolium based ionic liquids with high statistical accuracy. Our simulations demonstrate that the magnitude of the solvation free energy of a gas molecule at a chosen reference temperature and that of its temperature-derivatives are intimately related to one another. We conclude that this “universal” behavior is rooted in a solvation entropy–enthalpy compensation effect, which seems to be a defining feature of the solvation of small molecules in ionic liquids. The observations lead to simple analytical relations, determining the temperature dependence of the solubility data based on the absolute solubility at a certain reference temperature. By comparing our results with available experimental data from many sources, we can show that our approach is particularly helpful for providing reliable estimates for the solvation behavior of very light gases, such as hydrogen, where conflicting experimental data exist.