Ionic Liquids as a Critical Enabling Technology for Meeting Current and Future Needs in Energy, Materials, and Living Systems

Ionic liquids have been known for over a century, but they spent much of that time in relative scientific obscurity. Yet, beginning around 1998 interest in these unorthodox salts exploded, and in the intervening period some 85,000 papers have been published on the topic – a truly remarkable, near-unprecedented rate of development. During these past twenty years we have accumulated an impressive store of data pertaining to ionic liquids, and we have begun to use them on large scales in ‘real-world’ applications. Even so, many with experience in the field will attest that what is understood about them is still dwarfed by what is not yet understood. Likewise, the degree to which they have been harnessed in practical applications continues to be dwarfed by their potential for use in others. To move beyond this ‘here and now’ towards tomorrow, it is vital to appreciate that ionic liquids are not a technological end unto themselves, but rather an enabling technology of truly remarkable scope.

In this 2018 meeting, we will address challenges the field faces moving forward, and we will aim to help create a vision for meeting them. We will take up critical issues such as how we can harness ILs to improve our prospects for a future powered by greener energy – not only by enabling the more tractable manipulation of biomaterials, but in helping to reduce the environmental impact of hydrocarbon fuels. We will ask – and attempt to answer – such questions as whether ionic liquids can make analyses more sensitive, polymers more useful, and working in environmental extremes more readily accomplished. We will ask whether physicochemical and computational studies of ionic liquids not only help us to better understand their properties from a conceptual standpoint, but whether they can help us design better ionic liquids for uses of interest. We will also ask whether we have ‘met a brick wall’ in developing new IL ions – especially anions. We hope – and expect – the talks at this meeting to not only answer questions currently being asked, but prompt those present to ask new ones. It is in those new questions, and the ideas to which they give birth that the future of the field lies. Come, be a part of that future!