Abstract

Based on experimental data collected from the literature, a group contribution method for estimating the melting points of imidazolium-, pyridinium-, pyrrolidinium-, ammonium-, phosphonium-, and piperidinium-based ionic liquids (ILs) with common anions is proposed. The method considers the contributions of ionic groups and methylene groups, as additive parameters, and two nonadditive characteristic geometric parameters of cations such as symmetry and flexibility. A total of 293 data points for 136 ILs were used in this study. The average relative deviation and the average absolute deviation of the proposed model are 7.8% and 22.6K, respectively. It is concluded that the proposal is useful for the prediction of the melting points for a wide range of ILs. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.