The Importance of Ionic Liquids and Applications on Their Molecular Modeling

Introduction

The first ionic liquid was synthesized by Paul Walden 104 years ago. Ionic liquids are eutectic salt mixtures that consist completely of ions and their melting point is normally below 100 °C. Ionic liquids have been of interest by reason of their many unique features such as superior capacity to dissolve organic and inorganic substances, enormously low volatility, adjustable nature, high thermal stability, high chemical inertness, adjustable viscosity, high conductivity, high heat capacity, wide electrochemical range. Ionic liquids have outstanding handling advantages like nearly zero probability of explosion in high-temperature chemical reactions on account of their low volatilities and non-flammability, their use over a broad range of reaction temperatures owing to their high thermal stabilities (ie thermal decay generally above 350 °C) and high boiling points, dissolution of several organic and inorganic materials in this liquids and usage of polar aprotic ionic liquids to replace harmful and flammable polar aprotic solvents such as dimethylsulfoxide, acetonitrile and dimethylformamide. As long as the synthesis routes and purification methods are more complicated, the costs of ionic liquids become even higher (Ozokwelu et al., 2017; Dupont et al., 2015).