Application of ionic liquids as solvents for polymerization processes

Ionic liquids are organic salts that are liquid at ambient temperatures. They are non-volatile, highly polar solvents that dissolve several organic, inorganic and metaloorganic compounds. Although there is an increasing number of reports dealing with the application of ionic liquids as solvents for organic synthesis, their use in polymer synthesis is still limited. In the last few years, however, it has been shown that ionic liquids can be advantageously used also for polymer synthesis. In radical polymerization the increase of k(p)/k(1) ratio for polymerizations conducted in ionic liquids has been observed. Application of ionic liquids as solvents for Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization facilitates separation of the polymer from residual catalyst and reduces the extent of side-reactions. These and the other polymerization systems in which ionic liquids were used as solvents are discussed in the article mainly on the basis of results published in last five years. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.