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

IoLiTec (ionic liquids Technologies) are an interesting new company specialising in marketing ionic liquids, and developing applications. They have developed a practical and efficient technology to clean high value and sensitive surfaces, using ionic liquids as antistatic cleaning agents, the brush bristles being moistened by a fine spray of aqueous solution. Conventionally, dilute aqueous sodium chloride solutions have been used as the wetting agent, but the effect of replacing this with an ionic liquid is dramatically demonstrated in Fig.

IoLiTec has also interests in the application of ionic liquids in medicine (coated implants), food analytics, sensors, and heat pumps, and is currently involved in the development of various green applications based on ionic liquids, e.g. electrolytes for dye-sensitised solar cells (Gra¨ tzel cells or DSSCs), and phase change materials (PCMs) for the storage of solar energy and for sorption cooling media for ‘‘solar cooling’’. Pilot installations for both DSSC and PCM applications are currently being constructed.