Accounting for the Unique, Doubly Dual Nature of Ionic Liquids from a Molecular Thermodynamic and Modeling Standpoint

Luís Paulo Rebelo was born in 1960 in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1989, he received his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL). He has been a Visiting Scientist at Cornell University (1985), University of Tennessee (1990–1991 and 1996), and Princeton University (1997). He joined the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB) in 2000, where he is currently an Associate Professor and Head of the Technology Division. He was Member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Chemical Society (1987–1989), Editor of the Bulletin of the Portuguese Chemical Society (1995–1996), and Member of the Board of Directors of the Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (2005–present). Rebelo’s research interests are centered on molecular thermodynamics of liquids and liquid solutions, in particular, isotope effects, ionic liquids, polymer solutions, and metastable liquids.

José Canongia Lopes was born in 1965 in Lisbon, Portugal. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemical thermodynamics from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon, in 1993. He has been a Visiting Scientist at the Imperial College, London, U.K. (1996) and at the Université Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France (2006). He is currently an Assistant Professor at IST and also (since 2005) at ITQB, where he holds a post of Invited Assistant Professor. His main research interests lie in the areas of molecular modeling of complex fluids and materials.

José Esperança received his Ph.D. degree (2004) from the New University of Lisbon. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Rebelo’s group at ITQB, with expertise in high-pressure speed-of-sound and density measurements.

Henrique Guedes is an Assistant Professor at the New University of Lisbon and has spent several periods of sabbatical leave at the ITQB. His main research interests focus on experimental thermodynamics.

Joanna Łachwa received her Ph.D. degree (2003) from the Warsaw University of Technology. She was a postdoctoral fellow at ITQB, with expertise in solid–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria.

Vesna Najdanovic-Visak obtained her Ph.D. degree (2004) from ITQB (Rebelo and Nunes da Ponte’s groups), with expertise in fluid-phase diagrams involving supercritical CO₂.

Zoran Visak received his Ph.D. degree (2004) from ITQB. He is a postdoctoral fellow in Rebelo’s group at ITQB, with expertise in fluid-phase equilibria and liquid metastability.

The fascinating, complex behavior of ionic liquids is analyzed using a molecular perspective that emphasizes the doubly dual nature of ionic liquids underlying the existence of cations and anions forming high- and low-charge-density regions. Our work bridges the liquid, gas, and solid phases spanning 5 years of research on themes as diverse as the vaporization, liquid–liquid demixing, solidification, and thermophysical behavior of ionic liquids and their mixtures and solutions.