Electrowetting of ionic liquids
Date
2006
Authors
Millefiorni, S.
Tkaczyk, A.H.
Sedev, R.V.
Efthimiadis, J.
Ralston, J.
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Journal article
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Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2006; 128(9):3098-3101
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Abstract
We have successfully demonstrated that imidazolium- and pyrrolidinium-based commercial room-temperature ionic liquids can electrowet (with a dc voltage) a smooth fluoropolymer (Teflon AF1600) surface. Qualitatively, the process is analogous to the electrowetting of aqueous electrolyte solutions: the contact angle versus voltage curve has a parabolic shape which saturates at larger voltages (positive or negative). On the other hand we observed several peculiarities: (i) the efficiency is significantly lower (by about an order of magnitude); (ii) the influence of the bulky cation is larger and the importance of the smaller anion is lesser, especially with respect to electrowetting saturation; (iii) there is an asymmetry in the saturation contact angles found for positive and negative voltages. The asymmetry may be correlated with the cation-anion asymmetry of the ionic liquids. The low efficiency may be caused by the presence of water and other impurities in these commercial materials.
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