Ionic Liquids as Transformative Materials for Addressing Challenges in Sustainability, Energy and Health

Ionic liquids are an exciting class of solvents that have been known for over a century. Our understanding of ionic liquids has been enhanced by scientists and engineers who have studied them, making them even more visible and applicable in a number of areas of research. In addition to the wide-spread interest in ionic liquids, there has also been an exciting growth in investigations related to deep eutectic solvents, which possess many similar features to ionic liquids. Despite this research activity, there are still many fundamental questions that have yet to be answered and that will undoubtedly facilitate their more widespread use in a number of highly interdisciplinary areas.

The 2024 GRC on Ionic Liquids will discuss opportunities for the field in advancing ionic liquids research to address pressing societal challenges related to energy, sustainability, and health. In the area of energy, ionic liquids offer tremendous potential as solvents that can make processes more efficient by harnessing knowledge from fundamental research to design solvents specific to a particular process. Ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents can also address important milestones in improving sustainability, particularly in areas such as chemical synthesis and chemical separations where large volumes of solvents are often required. In the area of health, improved pharmaceuticals are being developed that can treat diseases in a highly specific manner. Ionic liquids can be used as the active pharmaceutical ingredient and can also serve as important vehicles for the delivery of targeted biopharmaceuticals. This meeting will highlight important issues and topics that must be addressed in order to make ionic liquids more readily adopted and transformative technologies. We will discuss current state-of-the art work in computational chemistry and the opportunities that exist for theoretical and computational efforts in machine learning. Opportunities offered by ionic liquid-based polymer systems and solvent templating approaches for guided production or destruction of biopolymers and nanomaterials will be probed. The role of ionic liquids as electrolyte materials for energy applications will be discussed. Conversations related to solvent purity as well as expanding the types of cations and anions – and their ordering at the nanoscale and on surfaces – will also be held. As was true for all meetings from previous years, we envision that the discussions held at the 2024 meeting will create many questions that will ultimately lead to new areas of study within the field. We hope that you can come and participate in these discussions within this highly thriving and welcoming community!