Ionic liquids articles from across Nature Portfolio

Deep eutectic solvents are promising, sustainable alternatives for diverse applications, including separation, gas capture, electrodeposition, or nanomaterial synthesis, but our fundamental understanding of the nature of these solvents remains limited. Here, the authors report a practical approach for estimating the solid–liquid equilibrium phase diagram of any binary mixture from structural information, using machine learning and quantum chemical techniques.

Chemical recycling of plastic wastes is of great significance for sustainable development, which also represents challenges and opportunities for synthesis of value-added chemicals. Here, the authors report a general strategy to degrade polyesters via directly breaking the C-O bond by nucleophilic substitution of halide anion of ionic liquids.

The volatility of certain ionic liquids can be controlled electrochemically by applying a voltage to break their aromatic components. Cathodic reduction creates combustible species, but once the power is switched off and aromaticity restored, the liquid is thermally stable again.

Choline 2-hexenoate is an ionic compound that is a liquid at room temperature, and is just one of a class of compounds that have huge potential in biomedical research and clinical applications, explains Eden E. L. Tanner.

Electronic skins that are able to restore their function when damaged in aquatic conditions could be used to create durable underwater soft robots.