The thermal stabilities of 66 ionic liquids (ILs) were investigated using the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) method. Isothermal TGA studies on the ILs showed that ILs exhibit decomposition at temperatures lower than the onset decomposition temperature (T onset ), which is determined from ramped temperature TGA experiments. Thermal decomposition kinetics of ILs was analyzed using pseudo-zero-order rate expression and their activation energy was obtained. Parameter T 0.01/10h , the temperature at which 1% mass loss occurs in 10 h, was used to evaluate the long-term thermal stability of ILs. The thermal stability of the ILs was classified to five levels according to T onset . The ILs thermal stability is dependent on the structure of ILs, i.e., cation modification, cation and anion type. The correlations between the stability and the hydrophilicity of ILs were discussed. Finally, the thermal stabilities of acetate-based ILs, amino acid ILs, and dicyanamide ILs were analyzed.

Ionic liquids have attracted a great deal of interest in recent years, illustrated by their applications in a variety of areas involved with chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. Usually, the stabilities of ionic liquids are highlighted as one of their outstanding advantages. However, are ionic liquids really stable in all cases? This review covers the chemical stabilities of ionic liquids. It focuses on the reactivity of the most popular imidazolium ionic liquids at structural positions, including C2 position, N1 and N3 positions, and C4 and C5 positions, and decomposition on the imidazolium ring. Additionally, we discuss decomposition of quaternary ammonium and phosphonium ionic liquids and hydrolysis and nucleophilic reactions of anions of ionic liquids. The review aims to arouse caution on potential decomposition of ionic liquids and provides a guide for better utilization of ionic liquids.

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Most of the ionic liquids (ILs) are hygroscopic in air. The effects of structural factors of ILs (cation, anion, alkyl chain length at cation, and C2 methylation at cation) and external factors (temperature, relative humidity, and impurity) on the kinetics of water sorption by 18 ILs were investigated. A modified two-step sorption mechanism was proposed to correlate the water sorption data in the ILs. Three type of parameters (sorption capacity, sorption rate and degree of difficulty to reach sorption equilibrium) based on the modified two-step mechanism were derived to comprehensively characterize the water sorption processes. These parameters have similar tendencies, providing an efficient way to evaluate them by one parameter that can be easily obtained. The hydrophilicity of the ILs was classified to four levels (super-high, high, medium, low) according to the water sorption capacity. The results show that cation of the ILs also plays an important role in water sorption, and the impurities affect the water sorption enormously. Acetate and halogen-based ILs have the highest hydrophilicity when combined with the imidazolium or pyridinium cation.

Research on ionic liquids has achieved rapid progress in the last several decades. Stability is a prerequisite for the application of ionic liquids. Ionic liquids may be used at elevated temperature, as electrolytes, or under irradiation. Therefore, the thermal, electrochemical, and radiolytic stabilities of ionic liquids are important and need to be known before their usage. Many research papers and some reviews on the stabilities of ionic liquids have been published. However, new results are continuously being published and a comprehensive review and perspective on this topic are still urgently needed. In this perspective, we intend to provide a comprehensive review including characterization methods, the effects of chemical composition of the ionic liquids on the thermal, electrochemical, and radiolytic stabilities of ionic liquids, respectively. Moreover, the thermal stability of some special types of ionic liquids such as poly(ionic liquids) and mixed ionic liquids, and the thermal and electrochemical stabilities of protic ionic liquids are discussed too. For thermal stability, the interactions between ions are less important than the individual anions and cations. The decomposition temperature is mainly determined by the less-stable ion, usually the anion. For electrochemical stability, the electrochemical window is determined by both the cation and anion. The less stable ion could influence the stability by interaction between the generated species from the decomposition with the more stable ion (opposite ion). This perspective is helpful for people to avoid using unstable ionic liquids and choose suitable ionic liquids.