Skip to main content
Article
Ionic liquids in analytical chemistry
Analytical Chemistry (2006)
  • Jared L. Anderson, University of Toledo
  • Daniel W. Armstrong, University of Texas at Arlington
  • Guor-Tzo Wei
Abstract

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), also known as liquid organic, molten, or fused salts, are a class of nonmolecular ionic solvents with low melting points. The accepted definition of an RTIL is any salt that has a melting point lower than ambient temperature (1). However, “ionic liquid” (IL) is often applied to any compound that has a melting point <100 °C. Most common RTILs are composed of unsymmetrically substituted nitrogen-containing cations (e.g., imidazole, pyrrolidine, pyridine) with inorganic anions (e.g., Cl–, PF6 –, BF4 –). ILs are also interesting because of their other useful and intriguing physicochemical properties. Wilkes et al. first reported ambient-temperature ILs based on the 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cation in 1982 (2). Since then, many ILs containing a variety of cations and anions of different sizes have been synthesized to provide specific characteristics.

Keywords
  • ionic liquid,
  • chemistry,
  • electrochemistry,
  • gas chromatography,
  • infrared spectrophotometry,
  • mass spectrometry,
  • methodology,
  • sensitivity and specificity,
  • chromatography,
  • electrochemistry
Disciplines
Publication Date
May 1, 2006
Publisher Statement
Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Analytical Chemistry 78 (2006): 2892, doi: 10.1021/ac069394o. Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society.
Citation Information
Jared L. Anderson, Daniel W. Armstrong and Guor-Tzo Wei. "Ionic liquids in analytical chemistry" Analytical Chemistry Vol. 78 Iss. 9 (2006)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jared_anderson/13/