Themed collection Ionic liquids: from fundamental properties to practical applications

The Faraday Discussion on Ionic Liquids: From Fundamental Properties to Practical Applications took place in Cambridge in September 2017. A summary of the conference and a vision for the future of ionic liquids are presented.

For the first time, 12 different supported deep eutectic solvent (DES) liquid membranes were prepared and characterized.

Relative pH values are calculated using an indicator dye and a glass electrode, and they are found to provide consistent results.

The important properties and applications of molecular liquid mixtures with ionic liquids and low melting organic salts are discussed.

Nanoscale MD simulations with the Effective Fragment Potential are performed on aqueous mixtures of dialkylimidazolium ILs paired with three anions, producing insights on ionic domain structure. Ionic domain structure is correlated to nanoscale structure as determined by SAXS.

With the aid of molecular dynamics simulations, we study the structure and dynamics of different ionic liquid systems.

Nowadays, commercial supercapacitors are based on purely capacitive storage, and porous carbons are used as electrodes.

The structural arrangement and dynamics of ions near the IL/electrode interface during charging and discharging was studied by a combination of time resolved X-ray reflectivity and impedance spectroscopy.

Small-angle neutron scattering experiments, supported by molecular dynamics simulations, have been performed on a range of compositions of the [C₂mim]_1−x[C₁₂mim]_x[Tf₂N] ionic liquid mixture system.

The vacuum–liquid interfaces of a number of ionic-liquid mixtures have been investigated using a combination of RAS-LIF, selected surface tension measurements, and molecular dynamics simulations.

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the exfoliation of graphene and fluorographene in molecular and ionic liquids using computer experiments in which one layer of the 2D nanomaterial is peeled, in vacuum or with solvent present.

Using a dynamic surface force apparatus, we investigate the nano-mechanics and the nano-rheology of an ionic liquid at dielectric and metallic solid surfaces.

A wide variety of experimental and computational methods are used to probe sulfur atomic charges in ionic liquids.

We use the Raman active bands of O₂˙⁻ to probe its changing Lewis basicity through its interaction with various ionic liquid electrolytes at the electrode surface.

Oscillatory and monotonic decay in mixtures of salt and solvent at interfaces with varying surface charge.

After heating the acetone under the porous [OMIM][BF₄] to 120 K, the acetone diffuses into pores lined with octyl chains (destabilised acetone) and pores lined with ions (stabilised acetone).

Experimental results are summarized on the P–T–m diagram. In pure [C₃mim][I], amorphous phase appeared both at low-temperature and high-pressure. Stoichiometric [C₃mim][I₃] promotes crystallization, while non-stoichiometric [C₃mim][I_3.66] indicates anomalies.

Neutron diffraction with isotopic substitution has been applied to examine the potential for complex-ion formation in protic imidazolium bis{(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl}imide ionic liquids.

Here we show that biomass derived from Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis can be pretreated with low cost choline amino acid based ionic liquids to effectively yield lipids and sugars.

Ionic liquids combining potassium cations with 1-alkyl-3-methylcyclopentadienyl anions, K[C_nC₁Cp] (n = 4 and 6) have been synthesized.

Ionic liquids have attracted significant interest as electrolytes for the electrodeposition of metals and semiconductors, but the details of the deposition processes are not yet well understood.

Phase behaviour of n-alkylammonium (C6 to C16) nitrates and formates was characterised using synchrotron small angle and wide angle X-ray scattering, differential scanning calorimetry, cross polarised optical microscopy and FTIR.

Various types of piperidinium ionic liquids equipped with an oxygen atom-containing alkyl side chain on the positively charged nitrogen atom were systematically synthesized and their physical properties investigated.

Amphoteric water was mixed with equimolar amounts of a super-strong acid, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TfOH), and a super-strong base, 1,8-diazabicyclo-[5.4.0]-7-undecene (DBU) to explore the properties as fuel cell electrolytes.

SCILL catalysts are active and selective for the S–S coupling of thiols to the corresponding disulfides showing a significantly increased stability.

Electroless deposition can be triggered by the difference in the redox potentials between two metals in an electrolyte.