Electrochemical behavior of nitromethane in ionic liquid BMImPF6

The electrochemical behavior of nitromethane was investigated using cyclic voltammetry in the room temperature ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophate (BMImPF6) on a platinum disk microelectrode. The influences of temperature, scan rate and nitromethane concentration on the electrochemical characteristics of nitromethane were also discussed. The results showed that nitromethane was reduced irreversibly by one electron, and the electrode process was controlled by diffusion. According to the Randles-Sevcik equation, the diffusion coefficients of nitromethane were estimated for each temperature in BMImPF6, which increased with temperature owing to the diminution of BMImPF6 viscosity. According to the Arrhenius equation, the activation energy of diffusion of nitromethane in BMImPF6 was also calculated to be 22.28 kJ&middotmol-1.