Because of their outstanding versatility, room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are utilized in an ever increasing number of novel and fascinating applications, making them the Holy Grail of modern materials science. In this Perspective, we address the fundamental research and prospective applications of RTILs in combination with molecular liquids, concentrating on three significant areas: (1)...

Condensation on liquids has been studied extensively in context of breath figure templating, materials synthesis and enhancing heat transfer using liquid impregnated surfaces. However, the mechanics of nucleation and growth on liquids remains unclear, especially on liquids that spread on the condensate. By examining the energy barriers of nucleation, we provide a framework to choose liquids tha...

We have measured the shear modulus and viscosity of two supercooled liquids: tricresyl phosphate and squalane. In both cases we find that the width of the peak in the imaginary part of the shear modulus narrows as the temperature is lowered toward the glass transition temperature. For tricresyl phosphate, we find no evidence for a decoupling of the viscosity and shear modulus relaxation times f...

The viscosity distribution of the liquid around a rising bubble in carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) aqueous solutions was measured experimentally by particle image velocimetry (PIV). The effect of the concentration of CMC solutions on the viscosity distribution around a bubble and the coupling relations between the viscosity field, flow field and shear stress field were also studied. Results indic...

Ionic liquids based on 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations and the hydrogen sulfate (or bisulfate) anion, HSO(4)(-), are much more viscous than ionic liquids with alkyl sulfates, RSO(4)(-). The structural origin of the high viscosity of HSO(4)(-) ionic liquids is unraveled from detailed comparison of the anion Raman bands in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate and 1-butyl-3-methylimida...

A model is developed that describes temperature and pressure dependence of dielectric relaxation, ionic conductivity, and viscosity of glass-forming liquids near the glass transition temperature. The expressions for ionic conductivity are compared with experimental results for two polymer electrolytes. Those for dielectric relaxation are compared with data for poly(propylene oxide) and poly(vin...

The viscosity of liquids under nanoconfinement remains controversial. Reports range from spontaneous solidification to no change in the viscosity at all. Here, we present thorough measurements with a small-amplitude linear atomic force microscopy technique and careful consideration of the confinement geometry, to show that in a weakly interacting liquid, average viscosity remains bulk like, exc...