A Review of Ionic Liquids, Their Limits and Applications

Since environmental pollution caused by chemical and energy industries has increased for several decades, there is a social expectation that scientists and engineers try to design sustainable chemical processes, to generate less hazardous materials and more environmentally friendly sources of energy production. In this review the roles of Ionic Liquids (ILs) and IL based solvent systems as proposed alternative for conventional organic solvents are described. Since there are already many reviews on benefits of ILs, after a very brief review of ILs we focus mostly on aspects that are not covered in other reviews, in particular the known limits of these solvents. In addition, different methods to measure the physicochemical properties relevant to their use in energy storage applications such as fuel cells and batteries are introduced. The physicochemical properties that are reviewed are thermal properties, conductivity and chemical reactivity. The focus of the review is on the literature after 2008, with the exception of some important historic articles on ILs.