Recent applications of ionic liquids in separation technology.

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been applied in different areas of separation, such as ionic liquid supported membranes, as mobile phase additives and surface-bonded stationary phases in chromatography separations and as the extraction solvent in sample preparations, because they can be composed from various cations and anions that change the properties and phase behavior of liquids. Although the applications of ILs in separations are still in their early stages, the academic interest in ILs is increasing. An overview of the principle applications of ILs in separation technology is present in this work. Furthermore, the prospects of the ILs in separation techniques are discussed.