Oxadiazolyl-pyridines and perfluoroalkyl-carboxylic acids as building blocks for protic ionic liquids: crossing the thin line between ionic and hydrogen bonded materials

A series of 18 samples has been prepared in order to obtain fluorinated materials as Protic Ionic Liquids (PILs). These were synthesized by appropriately mixing 1,2,4-oxadiazoles derivatised with two pyridines, or one pyridine and a fluorinated chain, and perfluoroalkyl-carboxylic acids, either mono- or dicarboxylic, leading to symmetric and non-symmetric materials. Many of them showed low melting points. However, the possibility of classifying the synthesized materials as PILs is discussed in terms of effective ionicity of the systems by the combination of Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation and IR spectroscopy. The important outcome of our investigation is that the complete proton transfer reaction cannot be taken for granted. The thermal behaviour of the new fluorinated materials was also studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).