Limited thermal stability of imidazolium and pyrrolidinium ionic liquids

Ionic liquids, with their vast applications, have been touted as being thermally stable to very high temperatures. However, decomposition not detected by standard TGA and NMR techniques are observed with spectroscopic techniques sensitive enough to see small amounts of impurities. Decomposition temperatures of common ionic liquids appear to occur at hundreds of degrees below those temperatures previously reported. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.