Ionic Liquids
Ionic liquids are also known as room temperature molten salts. Due to their non-volatile feature, the most attractive application of ionic liquids is to replace the traditional volatile organic solvents, which are harmful to the environment. Other features, such as reusability, low viscosity, better reactivity and selectivity, also ensure ionic liquids to be a good candidate to achieve ``green chemistry''. Although ionic liquids attract the attention of more and more researchers, many of their basic properties are still under debating investigations. The research for ionic liquids in our group is focused on developing reliable theoretical models as well as investigating the general physical behavior of ionic liquids by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations.
Fig. 1 (below) shows a snapshot of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate (EMIM+/NO3-) ionic liquid with 64 ion pairs:
