Analytical applications of room-temperature ionic liquids: A review of recent efforts

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are solvents that may have great potential in chemical analysis. Recent surge in the number of publications/reports/books/monographs clearly indicate an increasing interest of scientific and engineering community toward these exciting and unique solvents. Consequently, a variety of analytical applications of RTILs have started to emerge. This review presents an account of some of the recent reports on RTILs in major subdisciplines of analytical chemistry. Specifically, recent literature representing the applications of RTILs in chromatography, extraction, electroanalytical chemistry, sensing.. and spectrometry is reviewed. With a rapid growth in the number of publications on analytical applications of RTILs, it appears that in the near future these neoteric solvents are definitely going to be a permanent feature in analytical chemistry. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.