Room Temperature Ionic Liquids - A Kind of Novel Green Solvents and Catalysts

Room temperature ionic liquids is more and more recognized and accepted as a kind of novel green solvents and catalysts with great application potential in electrochemistry, catalysis, synthesis and separation for their special physical and chemistry properties. In comparison with the volatile organic solvents now widely used, room temperature ionic liquids as solvents possess wider liquid range and neglectable vapor pressure as well as good reusability, which is very important for today when environment problem is more and more cared by people. Room temperature ionic liquids can accelerate reaction rate as reaction medium. Being used as catalysts, especially chloroaluminate ionic liquids, room temperature ionic liquids show better reaction activity than that of traditional inorganic acids. Room temperature ionic liquids can be used as extract agent. In some homogeneous reaction, because of the addition of room temperature ionic liquids, the reaction system can be separated into two phases, which are good to the separation of the product. In a word, room temperature ionic liquids have wide promising application as a kind of novel green solvents and catalysts.