Ionic Liquids as Solvents in Separation Processes

He term ‘ionic liquids’ (IL), covers one of the broadest classes of chemical compounds of salt type of low melting temperature with appreciable wide liquid range. Within the last years, ILs has become mainstream solvents in different fields of chemistry. This has been possible owing to environmentally advantageous properties and possibility of adaptation of their structure to the specific task. Although at the beginning, ILs were mainly recognized as the reaction media in organic synthesis, an alternative to organic solvents, nowadays a growing interest of the analytical community with ILs can be observed. As a result, ILs has found a variety of applications in separation techniques. This overview presents chosen extraction techniques with particular emphasis on aqueous two-phase systems based on ionic liquids. The findings presented herein concern applications of ionic liquids as components of liquid/ liquid extraction systems, suitable for isolation of both organic compounds and inorganic ions.