Inorganic materials synthesis in ionic liquids

The field of inorganic materials from ionic liquids (ILs) is a young and dynamically growing research area for less than 10 years. The ionothermal synthesis in ILs is often connected with the preparation of nanomaterials, the use of microwave heating and in part also ultrasound. Inorganic material synthesis in ILs allows obtaining phases which are not accessible in conventional organic or aqueous solvents or with standard methods of solid-state chemistry or under such mild conditions. Cases at hand include ligand-free metal nanoparticles without added stabilizing capping ligands, inorganic or inorganic-organic hybrid solid-state compounds, large polyhedral clusters and exfoliated graphene from low-temperature synthesis. There are great expectations that ILs open routes towards new, possibly unknown, inorganic materials with advantageous properties that cannot (or only with great difficulty) be made via conventional processes.