Dear Colleagues,

Ionic liquids are essentially liquids made up of cations and anions. Although the first low melting salt, ethylammonium nitrate, was synthesised by Paul Walden in 1914, the golden age of ionic liquids only began in the late 1990s. Early investigations used ionic liquids mainly in the role of solvents/processing media, but investigations quickly entered the area of catalysis, where ionic liquids serve as, i.e., (co)-catalysts, promotors, ligands, or stabilising agents.

Indeed, some aspects of commercial production and the use of ionic liquids, i.e., toxicity and environmental impact, cost, and purity, remain untackled. However, in industry, the choice of a system depends on a specific process or application. It is less important how “green” a component of a system is in itself if it can make the overall process more sustainable. Green chemistry focuses on the development of economical and eco-friendly technologies that not only improve the yield or efficiency but also decrease or eliminate the generation of waste and pollution. Unquestionably, ionic liquids can create systems that lead to significant improvements beyond simply replacing hazardous conventional solvents. Their unique tuneable/designer nature allows for the optimisation of the given technology according to the requirements of the intended use.

With this Special Issue, we aim at presenting recent progress in the application of ionic liquids in the area of catalysis and separation that falls within the green chemistry and sustainable development framework. We seek submissions on recent advances in the new synthetic pathways of different types of homogeneous (task-specific, chiral, poly-, switchable polarity, bio-) and heterogenous (immobilised) ionic liquids and their applications in various transformations, including organic and organometallic as well as bio-, electro-, or photochemical catalytic processes.

For this Special Issue, we accept submissions of full research articles and comprehensive reviews, communications, or letters representing both experimental and theoretical studies that explore the involvement of ionic liquids in catalytic and separation processes.

Dr. Małgorzata E. Zakrzewska
Dr. Vesna Najdanovic
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• ionic liquids in catalytic processes
• ionic liquids and catalyst recycling
• supported ionic liquid catalysis
• synthesis of ionic liquids
• green aspects of ionic liquid catalysis
• ionic liquids in separation processes
• ionic liquid recyclability