Themed collection Crystal engineering with ionic liquids

Welcome to this CrystEngComm collection on crystal engineering in ionic liquids.

Ionic liquids are playing an important role as crystallisation media in materials science. Some recent developments to crystallise inorganic materials are highlighted.

An organopalladium complex methylates Hg²⁺ giving an aqua–palladium complex that is methylated by MeHg⁺ and a dithiol, undergoing colour changes that permit the naked-eye detection of Hg²⁺ and MeHg⁺.

Mesoporous carbon/iron carbide hybrid materials were synthesized via an exotemplating route using monolithic mesoporous silica as template and the ionic liquid [Bmim][FeCl₄] as carbon and iron source.

Bimetallic alloy nanoparticles (NPs) are attractive materials for exploring advanced functions to reduce consumption of resources and energy.

The crystal structures of a series of ionic liquids with copper(II), nickel(II) or cobalt(II)-containing cations and N-alkylimidazole ligands are described.

We report the crystal structures of dicationic ionic liquids with both modified cation and anion moieties and discuss the influence of the “supramolecular ionic liquid architecture” that these subtle changes incur.

The ionic liquid-mediated epitaxy of hexagonal-shaped large C₆₀ crystallites with molecularly smooth surfaces on MoS₂ are reported.

Lysozyme crystal grown from a neat ionic liquid (IL) solution with the IL cation and anion incorporated in the structure.

Six 1,ω-bis(isoquinoline) ionic liquids were synthesized and utilized to construct ten novel 0, 1 and 2D cluster-based supramolecular polymeric frameworks by anion exchange and self-assembly.

An “all-in-one” ionothermal synthesis of {Cd₃F} metal–organic frameworks is presented, where [Bmim][BF₄] acts as a solvent, structure-directing agent, ligand precursor and promoter.