(Invited) Bulk and Interfacial Behavior of Ionic Liquids from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) have been widely investigated for use in lithium batteries, supercapacitors, dye-sensitized solar cells, actuators and as a reaction media due to their outstanding properties that include negligible vapor pressure, excellent thermal and electrochemical stability, good dissolution properties with many organic and inorganic compounds, and low flammability. Improved IL performance for these and other applications can be achieved by tuning the combination of cations and anions to obtain the desired thermodynamic, solvating and transport properties, as well as safety characteristics.