Turning dreams into commercial applications

A new generation in chemistry: Ionic liquids

Despite their extraordinary properties, it is only in recent years that ionic liquids have attracted significant public interest from the scientific community. Ionic liquids (IL) represent a new generation in chemistry with potential uses in various market segments, e. g. in the chemical, electrochemical, engineering and surface chemistry.

The term “ionic liquids” is commonly used for salts with melting points below 100°C. The great variety of different cations and anions available gives ionic liquids their numerous unique properties, making them suitable for very different applications. For example, IL have only negligible vapor pressure, they are non-flammable, have a high solvation capacity for various materials, a broad electro-chemical window of up to 6 V, and high thermal stability, and they remain liquid over a wide temperature range.

Broad IL portfolio from Merck

Based on extensive research in the field of ionic liquids, Merck is able to offer you the most specialized and diversified portfolio of cations and anions commercially available. Our catalogue range consists of approximately 100 ready-to-use ionic liquids. In addition, our extensive IL synthesis know-how enables us to provide a wide range of customized ionic liquids tailor-made for special industrial applications.

First-class services

Merck utilizes all facilities required to supply high-quality ionic liquids from laboratory-scale amounts to multi-ton bulk production quantities. With our local sales offices all around the world, we support you wherever you are – with individual advice from our IL experts as well as with regulatory support.

A multitude of possible applications

IL have potential uses in a wide range of commercial applications, e.g. in engineering, fine chemistry, energy storage, surface technology, electrochemistry, or white - biotechnology. One example is the use of IL in a compressor: In ionic compression systems, a specially designed, nearly incompressible ionic liquid replaces the metal piston of a conventional compressor. Unlike in conventional compression systems, there is no need for special seals and bearings in the compressor as the ionic liquid does not mix with the gas in this special case. Whereas a conventional machine consists of up to 500 movable parts, the ionic compressing system needs less than 10 – with considerable advantages for maintenance, system size, reusability and security.

Another important example for the use of specific IL properties, is the dye solar cell or dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC). This solar cell design, which uses low-cost materials and a roll-to-roll process, promises a very competitive price-performance ratio when produced on an industrial scale. The first commercial DSC applications have appeared on the market, e.g. for charging cell phones. As DSC can be made flexible, many future applications are conceivable: For example, dye solar cells could be used in automobiles, or they could even be applied to tent walls to run a LED at night. Merck owns for a major ingredient the intellectual property and is active in the research of this field.

For more information, please contact us.