Ionic liquids: New versatile media

I&EC 16

Anja-Verena Mudring, a.mudring@uni-koeln.de, Institut fuer Anorganische Chemie, Universitaet zu Koeln, Greinstr. 6, D-50939 Koeln, Germany
°ñ Solvation processes Due to the comparative novelty of ionic liquids, the solvation processes even of simple inorganic compounds are only poorly understood. A combination of spectroscopy and crystal structure analysis can elucidate these processes. Furthermore, specific ionic liquids are ideal media for the synthesis of compounds with weakly coordinating anions. °ñ Highly reducing species Ionic liquids can be designed in such a way that they can withstand highly reducing conditions like the presence of divalent lanthanoids. The reduction potentials determined by cyclovoltametry in weakly coordinating ionic liquids with OTf-, Tf2N- are significantly lower than in conventional solvents such as THF ¨C which makes new chemistry accessible. °ñ Optical materials Ionic liquids can be designed in such a way that lanthanide ions are well shielded not only from low frequency oszillators but also from themselves so that unusually high dopant concentrations together with high lifetimes can be achieved.