Innovative solvent for two-phase catalysis - Ionic fluids

Ionic liquids are low melting salts which represent a new class of non-molecular, ionic solvents. By combining different cations and anions a large number of liquids with very different physical and chemical properties can be obtained. It is possible to optimize the ionic medium for a specific application by the careful choice of the ion combination. Ionic liquids are interesting substitutes for organic solvent in catalytic reactions for many reasons: Besides their non-volatile nature offering significant engineering advantages, the unusual solubility properties of these liquids enable new multiphasic catalytic reactions.