Abstract
With the aid of nonionic surfactant Tween80, the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (bmimPF6) forms nonaqueous microemulsions with toluene. The phase diagram of the ternary system was prepared at 25°C. It was demonstrated that there were a single-phase region and a two-phase region in the ternary phase diagram. The single-phase region could be further divided into toluene-in-bmimPF6, bicontinuous and bmimPF6-in-toluene microemulsion regions by electrical conductivity. And by the use of methyl orange as an absorption probe, the polarity of the bmimPF6-in-toluene microemulsion was probed by UV-vis spectroscopy. A relatively constant polarity of the microemulsion droplets is obtained in the bmimPF6 microemulsion.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the “XIBUZHIGUANG” Science Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their financial support.