Interfacial Electrochemistry of Ionic Liquids

摘要

Currently there are about one thousand ionic liquids commercially available. They have wide thermal windows, i.e., most of them can be handled between 0 and 200 °C, which closes the gap between conventional solvents and high temperature molten salts. This property, together with their wide electrochemical windows, makes ILs interesting candidate materials for the electrodeposition of refractory metals like tantalum and niobium that in the past could only be deposited from high temperature molten salts. The composition of the IL plays an important role in the electrochemical process. There are four feature articles in this issue of Interface covering various aspects of ionic liquids: Electrodeposition in Ionic Liquids, by A. Ispas and A. Bund; Vacuum Electrochemistry in Ionic Liquids, by O. H?fft and S. Krischok; Influence of Molecular Organization of Ionic Liquids on Electrochemical Properties, by N. Borisenko, R. Atkin, and F. Endres; and Interfaces between Charged Surfaces and Ionic Liquids: Insights from Molecular Simulations, by V. Ivani?t?ev and M. V. Fedorov.