Chapter 1
Important Developments in the History
of Ionic Liquids from Academic Curiosity
to Commercial Processes and Products
Mark B. Shiflett, Joe W. Magee and Dirk Tuma
Abstract Twenty years ago, research involving ionic liquids was a minor field of
interest, and only a few chemists and even fewer engineers were interested in salts
with melting points near room temperature. In April 2000, the first NATO advanced
research workshop on ionic liquids was held in Heraklion, Crete. The conference
was the first international meeting devoted to ionic liquids and attracted most of the
active researchers at that time. Following that meeting, activity in the field began
to flourish and the first books and international conferences devoted to ionic liquids
began to appear. By the end of 2018, more than 80,000 scientific papers had been
published, and 17,000 patents were applied for in the field of ionic liquids! This
book provides an overview of the current and emerging industrial applications of
ionic liquids covering the core processes and products, the practical implementation
and technical challenges involved, and the potential future directions for research
and development. The individual chapters were written by leading scientists in the
field from industry and academia to address specific processes and products that
are or will be soon commercialized. Examples include the use of a chloroaluminate
ionic liquid as a next-generation alkylation catalyst to a new class of capillary gas
chromatography (GC) columns with stationary phases based on ionic liquids. Over
the past twenty years, there has been a growing realization that ionic liquids have
moved from being mere academic curiosities to having genuine applications in fields
as wide-ranging as advanced materials, biotechnology, catalysis, pharmaceuticals,
renewable fuels, and sustainable energy. There are many optimistic indications that
ionic liquids are on their way to becoming a commercial success story. This first
book on “Commercial Applications of Ionic Liquids” provides over 50 applications
that are either at the pilot scale or have been commercialized, which indicates that
an exciting new chapter in the field of ionic liquids is about to begin!
M. B. Shiflett (B)
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
e-mail: mark.b.shiflett@ku.edu
J. W. Magee
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA
D. Tuma
Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Berlin, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. B. Shiflett (ed.), Commercial Applications of Ionic Liquids, Green Chemistry
and Sustainable Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35245-5_1
3
Important Developments in the History
of Ionic Liquids from Academic Curiosity
to Commercial Processes and Products
Mark B. Shiflett, Joe W. Magee and Dirk Tuma
Abstract Twenty years ago, research involving ionic liquids was a minor field of
interest, and only a few chemists and even fewer engineers were interested in salts
with melting points near room temperature. In April 2000, the first NATO advanced
research workshop on ionic liquids was held in Heraklion, Crete. The conference
was the first international meeting devoted to ionic liquids and attracted most of the
active researchers at that time. Following that meeting, activity in the field began
to flourish and the first books and international conferences devoted to ionic liquids
began to appear. By the end of 2018, more than 80,000 scientific papers had been
published, and 17,000 patents were applied for in the field of ionic liquids! This
book provides an overview of the current and emerging industrial applications of
ionic liquids covering the core processes and products, the practical implementation
and technical challenges involved, and the potential future directions for research
and development. The individual chapters were written by leading scientists in the
field from industry and academia to address specific processes and products that
are or will be soon commercialized. Examples include the use of a chloroaluminate
ionic liquid as a next-generation alkylation catalyst to a new class of capillary gas
chromatography (GC) columns with stationary phases based on ionic liquids. Over
the past twenty years, there has been a growing realization that ionic liquids have
moved from being mere academic curiosities to having genuine applications in fields
as wide-ranging as advanced materials, biotechnology, catalysis, pharmaceuticals,
renewable fuels, and sustainable energy. There are many optimistic indications that
ionic liquids are on their way to becoming a commercial success story. This first
book on “Commercial Applications of Ionic Liquids” provides over 50 applications
that are either at the pilot scale or have been commercialized, which indicates that
an exciting new chapter in the field of ionic liquids is about to begin!
M. B. Shiflett (B)
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
e-mail: mark.b.shiflett@ku.edu
J. W. Magee
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA
D. Tuma
Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Berlin, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. B. Shiflett (ed.), Commercial Applications of Ionic Liquids, Green Chemistry
and Sustainable Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35245-5_1
3