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Materials science

Reflections on ionic liquids

Ionic liquids are generally regarded as solvents, but these modular, tunable compounds have far greater technological potential. With a coat of silver, they become ideal materials for the liquid mirror of a space telescope.

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Figure 1: Liquid-mirror telescopes.

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Rogers, R. Reflections on ionic liquids. Nature 447, 917–918 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/447917a

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