Solvents, Materials, or Medicines?

Ionic Liquids are not new materials - they have been known for over 100 years, but have gained a substantial growth in renewed interest over the last 20 years, and particularly from 1995 onwards, first due to efforts by the United States Air Force in applying ILs as electrolytes, and then as a result of suggestions that ILs have unique properties as VOC solvent replacements and materials with new combinations of physical properties. Interest in the area blossomed in the mid 1990s with the realization that the complexity of the anion and cation components of ionic liquids allowed for relatively easy synthesis of structural variations, causing them to be known as 'designer solvents.' Today ILs are defined generally as those salts with melting points below 100 °C and whose melts are composed of discrete ions, but it is often the unique materials properties set, unavailable from molecular compounds or crystalline salts, that are bringing ILs under even more intense scrutiny. Interest in ionic liquids has been rapidly growing, in part because of the fascinating set of physical, chemical, and biological property sets these materials possess, and in part from the growing realization of new applications in such key areas as Sustainable Energy, Biomass, Biorefineries, Renewable Fuels and Chemicals, Materials, Pharmaceuticals, Separations, Catalysis, and Biotechnology (to name a few). Government and industrial funding in the area is rapidly increasing with the recognition of the many unique potential industrial applications this field offers.

This GRC will highlight many of the emerging themes which are becoming quite important worldwide and will represent an opportunity to meet and discuss these and other major topics in the field with international experts. In addition, representatives from large and small industry can provide insight into key issues such as scale-up, costs, availability, registration, and other key parameters needed to plan new ventures. Lively poster sessions and social events will provide much time for interaction with ionic liquid scientists and engineers from around the world. Participants will learn more about the Ionic Liquid state of matter and the growing impact of these fascinating materials on key societal issues such as Sustainable Energy, New and Renewable Materials, Biology, Biotechnology, and Industrial Processes.