The role of surface material properties on the behavior of ionic liquids in nanoconfinement: A critical review and perspective

TL;DR

This review highlights the significant influence of surface material properties on the behavior of ionic liquids in nanoconfinement, emphasizing the need for further research to optimize their applications in energy storage and lubrication.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of recent developments regarding surface material effects on ionic liquids in confinement and suggests directions for future investigations.

Findings

Surface properties critically affect ionic liquid behavior in confinement

Recent advances demonstrate the importance of material selection

Many issues remain unresolved for practical applications

Abstract

Room temperature ionic liquids show great promise as electrolytes in various technological applications, such as energy storage or electrotunable lubrication. These applications are particularly intriguing due to the specific behavior of ionic liquids in nanoconfinement. While previous research has been focused on optimizing the required characteristics through the selection of electrolyte properties, the contribution of confining material properties in these systems has been largely overlooked. In this Review, we provide constructive analysis of recent developments related to the description of surface material properties impact on the ionic liquid behavior in the confinement and propose potential ways for further investigations in this direction. Although the presented advances reveal the importance of surface material properties in the application processes with confined ionic liquids, there are still a lot of issues that should be thoroughly investigated in future. We believe that this review will significantly contribute to the development of new approaches with material properties consideration for confined ionic liquid research.