After nearly 10 years of intensive interdisciplinary worldwide research, Ionic Liquids (ILs) have become functional fluids for a wide range of applications, rather than just laboratory curiosities.The production, storage and transmission of energy are among the most important challenges for industry and society today. Utilization of renewable energies for example will not have an impact unless an efficient way to store electricity is established. For many applications in consumer electronics, industry and e-mobility, lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and supercapacitors are the energy sources of choice, but have issues with overheating and ignition of the organic solvents used in the conventional formulation of the electrolytes. Therefore, many efforts have been made to overcome these problems and new types of electrolytes are currently under investigation and caused a great interest in the utilization of ionic liquids (ILs).Ionic liquids � salts, consisting entirely of ions and being liquid at temperatures below 100�C � offer a unique set of physical and chemical properties, which allow their use as safe electrolytes in a lot of types of electrochemical devices. These properties include tunable viscosities and conductivities, (electro-)chemical & thermal stability, negligible vapor pressure, good electrical & thermal conductivity and good heat capacity as well as large electrochemical windows and incombustibility at temperatures below their decomposition point.In this talk, an overview about the most important developments in IL-technology, especially in the fields of energy storage (electrolytes for (Li-ion-)Batteries & supercapacitors (EDLCs)), solar cells (dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), heat transformation and transport (sorption cooling & thermal fluids), as well as transformation of biomass or CO2 into conventional building blocks will be given. Furthermore, the influence of the purity or well-defined composition of the ionic liquids and mixtures of ionic liquids on the performance and safety of electronic devices will be highlighted.

Can ionic liquids help tackling the challenges in the energy sector?

247th National Meeting (2014)

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