Abstract
Since their conception, ionic liquids (ILs) have been investigated for an extensive range of applications including in solvent chemistry, catalysis, and electrochemistry. This is due to their designation as designer solvents, whereby the physiochemical properties of an IL can be tuned for specific applications. This has led to significant research activity both by academia and industry from the 1990s, accelerating research in many fields and leading to the filing of numerous patents. However, while ILs have received great interest in the patent literature, only a limited number of processes are known to have been commercialised. This review aims to provide a perspective on the successful commercialisation of IL-based processes, to date, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of ILs in industry.
Highlights
Research in the field of ionic liquids (ILs) has been steadily increasing over the last two decades, since their initial discovery in 1914 by Paul Walden [1]
They later found that carboxylate-based ILs adversely reacted with cellulose through the formation of N-heterocyclic carbenes, and noted that chloride ILs can cause hydrolytic cleavage and degradation of cellulose when the water content increases above a certain threshold, which could be controlled by keeping the temperature above 100 ◦ C [162,163,164]
The fact that ILs are comprised entirely of ions has led to their commercialisation in applications where high electrochemical and thermal stabilities/conductivities are required—properties unequalled by other pure materials
Summary
Research in the field of ionic liquids (ILs) has been steadily increasing over the last two decades, since their initial discovery in 1914 by Paul Walden [1]. Many ILs have high thermalorstability, and their a lowuse flammability owing to theirbe negligible vapour applications, such asain batteries, even allow in space [16] It should noted, pressure at ambient temperature. The tuneable nature of ILs allows for the synthesis of a solvent with specific properties tailored to a updated as reported, to highlight the main differences between these two classes particular application, which is less the case for organic solvents. In light of such a comparison, while of materials [19].
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