Working Principles of ionic liquids (ILs)

Ionic liquids (ILs) are a fascinating material class, because they are entirely composed of mobile ions and they are salts that possess a wide liquid range at low temperatures. Understanding the manifoldness of interactions governing ILs and their mixtures as well as the resulting properties is crucial for their use in different applications, like material synthesis, electrochemistry, energy devices, extraction processes and many more. Gaining deeper insight into their working principles helps to improve the potential of ILs to serve as better alternative to conventional solvents.

Paper examples:

• Material synthesis in ionic liquids (179)
  The material synthesis at near room temperature in ionic liquids (ILs) is a subject of immense academic interest, because it opens novel, in many cases sustainable routes for neoteric materials and processes.
  To illuminate molecular-level details, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations of a single Te₄Br₂ molecule, dissolved in [C₂C₁Im][Cl] as well as in the same IL mixed with AlCl₃, were performed. In both systems, a significant structuring was observed. However, only in the AlCl₃-containing liquid, the reaction of the chain-like Te₄Br₂ molecule to a square-like Te₄Br⁺ takes place, the first step towards Te₂Br material formation.
  This clearly shows the advantage of AIMD simulations: It provides insight into molecular processes like chemical reactions under simultaneous detailed consideration of complex solvent effects, a scenario, which is experimentally only hardly accessible.
  Keywords: Ionic liquids, structure, material synthesis, solvent effects.
• Ion pairing in ionic liquids (168, 148)
  In energy devices, as in battery and supercapacitor technology, or in dye sensitized solar cells, ionic liquids (ILs) could function as electrolyte. Therefore understanding and quantifying their conductivity, and related properties is of crucial importance. In electrolyte systems, the association of the ions to form ion pairs or other low charge aggregates is a long discussed issue, since it can affect the manner and extent of conduction by changing the number of charged species in solution. Accordingly, the question of whether there are ion pairs in ILs is important, because it strongly affects the application of these materials.
  Keywords: Ionic liquids, conductivity, ion pairing, charge-transfer

List of papers: 211, 203, 198, 197, 196, 194, 193, 192, 191, 189, 188, 186, 185, 182, 181, 179, 178, 176, 174, 172, 168, 167, 165, 164, 162, 160, 159, 157, 155, 154, 152, 151, 148, 147, 145, 144, 143, 142, 141, 139, 138, 137, 136, 134, 132, 129, 128, 126, 125, 124, 122, 119, 118, 115, 113, 111, 107, 106, 104, 103, 95, 91, 90, 89, 88, 85, 84, 82, 80, 79, 69, 67, 66, 64, 57, 55, 49, 48, 44, 43, 42, 41, 34, 25