2025 Volume 74 Issue 9 Pages 499-512
Ionic liquids (ILs) provide unique effects as solvents on the static and dynamic aspects of chemical reactions. These arise from their ability to engage in diverse intermolecular interactions with solutes, the microscopic heterogeneity in their liquid structure, and their slow shear relaxation, which can compete with the time scale of chemical reactions. Our research group has investigated the characteristics of ILs and protic ionic liquids (PILs) as reaction media through the observation of photochemical reaction dynamics of solute molecules. This paper focuses on the proton transfer reactions between cyanonaphthols and PILs, as well as the solvation dynamics of ILs followed by the photodissociation reactions of aminophenyl disulfide. Using time-resolved spectroscopic measurements as well as quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations, we discuss how the intermolecular interaction of PILs/ILs with solutes and the dynamic responses of the solvents influence the kinetics of these reactions, which occur in the picosecond to nanosecond time range.
