Thermal and kinetic analysis of pure and contaminated ionic liquid: 1-butyl-2.3-dimethylimidazolium chloride (BDMIMCl)

In this research work, thermal decomposition and kinetic analysis of pure and contaminated imidazolium based ionic liquid (IL) has been investigated. As thermal decomposition and kinetics evaluation plays a pivotal role in effective process design. Therefore, thermal stability of pure 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride (BDMIMCl) was found to be higher than the sample of IL with the addition of 20% (wt.) NH4Cl as an impurity. The activation energy of thermal degradation of IL and other kinetic parameters were determined using Coats Redfern method. The activation energy for pure IL was reduced in the presence of NH4Cl as contaminant i.e., from 58.7 kJ/mol to 46.4 kJ/mol.