The addition of a simple amide to AlCl(3) causes the formation of a liquid of the form [AlCl(2)·nAmide](+) AlCl(4)(-). The material thus produced is liquid over a wide temperature range, is relatively insensitive to water and has the properties of an ionic liquid. This ionic liquid is shown to be a suitable medium for the acetylation of ferrocene and the electrodeposition of aluminium and demonstrated that quaternary ammonium cations are not always needed to form ionic liquids.

The deposition of aluminium from a chloroaluminate based ionic liquid was studied to elucidate the effect of a diluent (toluene) and electrolyte (LiCl) on the deposit morphology. A wide variety of analytical techniques was applied to this system to determine the speciation and mechanism of material growth. These included: (27)Al NMR, FAB-MS, cyclic voltammetry, chronocoulometry, chronopotentiometry, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It was found that under-potential deposition (upd) causes a change in the way in which metal grows on the electrode surface. Metal grows in two regimes which are believed to be nano-material and bulk material. The addition of toluene causes a change in speciation and a decrease in upd which in turn changes the morphology of the deposit obtained and can lead to mirror finish aluminium. The addition of LiCl has the opposite effect encouraging upd and leading to larger crystallites and a dark grey deposit. It is also shown for the first time that under many conditions the rate of the anodic dissolution process is overall rate controlling and one effect of the addition of toluene is to increase the rate of anodic dissolution.

Some transition metal cations, Cr (III), Fe (III), Fe (II) and Ni (II), were soluble in the new alum/urea ionic liquid and found to coordinate to it with weak coordination bond. This was reflected by the change of strength of the electronic spectra of the cations or the nature of these spectra as with Fe (II) when it showed high spin and low spin with nitrite and thiocyanate ions. It was also observed that water molecules of the solid composition of ionic liquid were not free in ionic liquid particularly when metal cations electronic behavior were compared to those in aqueous solution. Basic species of ionic liquid were suggested to have weak ionic strength.