Versatile approach of ionic liquids in the discovering of new materials

The distinctive Ionic Liquids (ILs) properties offer promising potential to enhance existing engineering applications or to discover attractive new ones. Ionic liquids, an environmentally friendly solvent has become an alternative to the volatile organic solvents over the past years. ILs are liquids consisting solely of ions which can further be described as molten salts having melting points of less than 100°C. Although they are primarily employed as solvents, other applications are found in various fields such as nanotechnology, polymer science, engineering, separation processes, biotechnology, biomass utilization and so on. The present interest concerns recent applications and emerging fields for the utilization of ILs as a versatile reagent for discovering new materials. Furthermore, recent technical developments, industrial applications and future prospects of ionic liquids as a potential replacement to the conventional solvents are outlined. Due to their distinctive properties such as non-volatility, high ionic conductivity and thermal stability, difficult demands criteria have been met with several applications. Nevertheless, to achieve further improvement, certain applications with unique characteristic properties must be explored. Therefore, with the research focused on the unique properties of ionic liquids, the applications of ILs for new materials may be discovered.