Chemists hoping to understand how solutes behave in ionic liquid solvents have demonstrated that various metal salts dissolved in a variety of these non-volatile solvents can show completely classical non-polar behavior despite their ionic nature. At the other extreme, the ionic liquids can also act as practically ideal solutions, dissolving up to 1 mole of metal salt per kilogram.

With potential uses in industry and academia for phase transfer catalysis, solar cells, electrodeposition and lithium batteries, it is important to understand the range of redox potentials of these solvent systems and their chemical properties.

• Ionic liquids form ideal solutions
  A. P. Abbott, G. Frisch, H. Garrett, J. Hartley,
  Chem. Commun. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1039/C1CC14801J