Chemical and electrochemical generation of superoxide ion in 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide

Ionic liquids (ILs) are currently attracting the attention of both researchers and industry due to their fascinating properties in different applications such as extraction, purification, catalysis, separation and electrochemical applications. The generation of superoxide ion (O²·) in ILs is one of these interesting areas. In this work, O²· was generated and analyzed electrochemically using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques from O2 dissolved in 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [BMPyrr][TFSI]. Furthermore, O²· was generated chemically by dissolving potassium superoxide in the same IL. UV/Vis spectrophotometry was used for testing the stability of the generated O²·. The results showed that O²· was stable in this IL. This encourages further investigation on the use of this particular class of ILs in various applications involving the O2·. For our best knowledge this is the first time that [BMPyrr][TFSI] was used for the chemical generation of O²·.