Green Imidazolium Ionics-From Truly Sustainable Reagents to Highly Functional Ionic Liquids

We report the synthesis of task-specific imidazolium ionic compounds and ionic liquids with key functionalities of organic molecules from electro-, polymer-, and coordination chemistry. Such products are highly functional and potentially suitable for technology applications even though they are formed without elaborate reactions and from cheap and potentially green reagents. We further demonstrate the versatility of the used synthetic approach by introducing different functional and green counterions to the formed ionic liquids directly during the synthesis or after metathesis reactions. The influence of different cation structures and different anions on the thermal and electrochemical properties of the resulting ionic liquids is discussed. Our goal is to make progress towards economically competitive and sustainable task-specific ionic liquids.