Organic chemistry in ionic liquids using non-thermal energy-transfer processes

As a result of the chemical industry being under pressure to reduce its usage of volatile solvents ionic liquids are of considerable interest as environmentally benign solvents for organic synthesis programs. Isolation of products is generally facilitated by the fact that ionic liquids form biphasic systems with many organic product mixtures. Recent research has emphasised the use of ionic liquids as solvents and co-solvents in reaction conditions requiring non-thermal heating processes since their ionic nature makes them susceptible to interaction with electromagnetic fields (heating by microwave irradiation). Furthermore, their low vapour pressure allows high temperatures to be reached and leads to interesting behaviour during ultrasound promoted reactions.