Colloquium
University of California, Berkeley
A New Frontier for Molecular Thermodynamics
Ionic liquids are organic salts with low melting points. Because, at ordinary temperatures, ionic liquids have negligible vapor pressure, they are potentially useful as "green" solvents that do not contribute to air pollution. Ionic liquids, therefore, may be useful for separation operations (absorption, extraction) and as media for chemical and biochemical reactions. Ionic liquids have been proposed for sweetening of sour natural gases and for removal of offensive heavy-metal ions from wastewaters.
For process design, we require thermodynamic properties. Following an extensive introduction concerning the possible role of ionic liquids in chemical technology, we present an introduction to current development of molecular thermodynamic methods for correlating and predicting the required properties.