Ionic Liquid Gels: Tunable and Multifaceted Materials

Materials based on ionic liquids retain properties of solvent components, like low vapor pressure, high thermal stability and structure tunability. The latter allows changing properties of materials by making small variations in the cation or anion structure, opening the way to a plethora of different applications. In this context, ionic liquid gels can represent a challenge especially if they are obtained from gelation of ionic liquid binary mixtures or of organic salts in ionic liquids. In the framework of our interest in studying ionic liquids properties and applications, in the last few years, we have addressed our attention to the obtainment of ionic liquid gels.1 We have deeply investigated their properties and analyzed the possible applications, preparing systems used for environmental preservation2 or remediation,3 as well as to avoid deterioration of materials.4 In this communication, a brief overview of results collected in the last few years will be presented.