Ionic liquids represent an exciting novel class of materials with potentially enormous applicative impact; they are proposed as environmentally responsible replacements for the noxious volatile organic solvents, as smart separation and catalysis media, or to develop electrochemical devices, just to mention a few examples. Recently, compelling experimental as well as computational evidence highlighted the complexity of RTIL morphology at the mesoscopic spatial scale, as compared to traditional molecular liquids. In this Perspective, we report on our current understanding on the nature of structural heterogeneities in ionic liquids, describing new experimental data supporting a microphase segregation structural model for these systems and proposing topics for further study. © 2011 American Chemical Society.
Mesoscopic structural heterogeneities in room-temperature ionic liquids
GONTRANI, LORENZO;CAMINITI, RUGGERO
2012-01-01
Abstract
Ionic liquids represent an exciting novel class of materials with potentially enormous applicative impact; they are proposed as environmentally responsible replacements for the noxious volatile organic solvents, as smart separation and catalysis media, or to develop electrochemical devices, just to mention a few examples. Recently, compelling experimental as well as computational evidence highlighted the complexity of RTIL morphology at the mesoscopic spatial scale, as compared to traditional molecular liquids. In this Perspective, we report on our current understanding on the nature of structural heterogeneities in ionic liquids, describing new experimental data supporting a microphase segregation structural model for these systems and proposing topics for further study. © 2011 American Chemical Society.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.