Applications of ionic liquids in the chemical industry.pdfVIP

CRITICAL REVIEW /csr | Chemical Society Reviews Applications of ionic liquids in the chemical industry Natalia V. Plechkovaa and Kenneth R. Seddonab Received 28th August 2007 First published as an Advance Article on the web 30th November 2007 DOI: 10.1039/b006677j In contrast to a recently expressed, and widely cited, view that ‘‘Ionic liquids are starting to leave academic labs and find their way into a wide variety of industrial applications’’, we demonstrate in this critical review that there have been parallel and collaborative exchanges between academic research and industrial developments since the materials were first reported in 1914 148 references ‘‘If you want to find something new, look for something new!’’ physical properties of ethylammonium nitrate [EtNH ][NO ]; 3 3 Yves Chauvin, Nobel Address, 2005.1 mp 13–14 uC , which was formed by the neutralisation of ethylamine with concentrated nitric acid.4 It is extremely In a recent front News entitled ‘Out Of The Ivory Tower’, it was2 argued that work, and some of the issues of association are as relevant ‘‘Ionic liquids are starting to leave academic labs and find their today as they were in 1914. He wrote: ‘‘In the following, I will way into a wide variety of industrial applications’’. By following disclose my investigations on the electric conductivity and, the history of ionic liquids, the major developments in the area, derived from the capillarity constant, the molecular size of and the development of industrial processes, we will demonstrate some organic ammonium salts. Anhydrous salts were that this view is misleading. In fact, we map the parallel chosen, which melt at relatively low temperatures, approxi- developments between academic research and industrial devel- mately up to 100 uC. These low melting points limited the opments since the materials were first r