Bromoacetonitrile

Vinylimidazole (99%), bromoacetonitrile (97%), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) (M_w—2000 Da), and poly(N,N-dimethyldiallylammonium chloride) (M_w—400,000–500,000 Da) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich (Gillingham, United Kingdom). Lithium bis(trifluromethane sulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI, 99.95%) was purchased from Io-li-tec (Heilbronn, Germany). All chemicals were used without any further purification. Solvents were of analytical grade. Pentanoic acid (>99%), hexanoic acid (>99%), 3-pentanone (>99%), 2-hexanone (>98%), 2-heptanone (>98%), 2-methylbutanal (98%), 1-heptanal (95%), 1-hexanol (99.9%), 2–heptanol (98%), 1–octanol (99.7%), benzyl alcohol (99.8%), 1-ethylnaphtalene (>97%), carvacrol (>98%), (+)-α-pinene (>99%), α-terpineol (>99%), eucalyptol (99%), (R)-(+)-pulegone (97%), and β-citronellol (95%) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Gillingham, United Kingdom). BTEX: Benzene (B) (99%) was provided by Riedel-de Haen, (Charlotte, NC, USA). Toluene (T) (99%), ethylbenzene (E) (99%), and p-xylene (X) (99%) were obtained from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany).

1-Vinylimidazole (Aldrich 99%), 2,2′-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile; AIBN, 98%), bromoacetonitrile (Aldrich 97%) and bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl)imide lithium salt (Aldrich 99%) were used as received without further purifications. DMSO, dimethyl formamide, methanol and tetrahydrofuran were of analytic grade. Several PAA samples (MW: 2,000 g mol⁻¹, solid powder; MW: 100,000 g mol⁻¹, 35 wt% in water, MW: 250,000 g mol⁻¹, 35 wt% in water; MW: 450,000 g mol⁻¹, solid powder; MW: 3,000,000 g mol⁻¹, solid powder ) were obtained from Sigma Aldrich. Poly[1-cyanomethyl-3-vinylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide] (PCMVImTf₂N) was prepared according to a previous report27 .