The Design of Polymeric Ionic Liquids for the Preparation of Functional Materials

The tunability of the chemical composition of ionic liquids (ILs), achieved by pairing various organic cations with numerous anions, allows for fine control of their physicochemical properties and has been widely used for the adjustment of the IL solvent characteristics. Exploitation of IL structural modularity coupled with chemical modification of the cation or anion to incorporate polymerizable groups is now an active area of research, resulting in the development of polymeric ionic liquids (poly(IL)s). The emergence of poly(IL)s as functional materials in the areas of polymer electrolytes, sorbents, dispersing agents, and nanomaterials is reviewed.