Lanzhou Greenchem ILs (Center for Greenchemistry and catalysis), LICP, CAS. Ionic Liquids

Scionix, a University spin off from the University of Leicester and Whyte Chemicals, have developed a chromium electroplating process based on choline-chromium(III) derived ionic liquids. It is a high efficiency, low power, process, avoiding the conventional, toxic, chromium(VI) process. It is presently running at pilot plant scale, and is ripe for commercialisation. Scionix have also developed an interesting process for the electropolishing of stainless steel. Although not all the Scionix media are true ionic liquids, some being better described as deep eutectics (mixtures of ionic liquids and molecular components), many of the principles are similar. These choline-based systems have the huge advantage of being very cheap.