View article

The self-organization and micelle formation of ionic liquids in aqueous solution is significant to the future use, application and environmental fate analysis of ILs. This review analyzes and summarizes the results obtained to date by a significant number of research groups on the micelle formation of imidazolium ILs in an aqueous solution, including the phenomena observed. Research in this field is often limited to authors making contributions with a small number of ILs determining their behavior in aqueous solution. This generally does not provide a broad overview of the overall surface behavior. Therefore this review was seen as necessary as to provide as complete picture as possible of the surface interactions of ILs. Imidazolium ionic liquids with alkyl chains longer than four are generally seen to behave as amphiphilic compounds, displaying interface interaction. Similarly to typical surfactants, imidazolium ionic …