Structural characteristics of alkylimidazolium-based salts containing fluoroanions

An overview of recent structural studies on alkylimidazolium-based salts containing fluoroanions is presented. Alkylimidazolium cations have been most extensively used for syntheses of ionic liquids (room temperature molten salts) because they usually exhibit low melting points, low viscosities and high conductivities. This review mainly focuses on structures of alkylimidazolium-based salts combined with a fluorocomplex anion ((FH)nF−, BF4−, PF6−, AsF6−, SbF6−, NbF6−, TaF6−), N(SO2CF3)2− (TFSI−) and OSO2CF3−. The first part describes crystal structures of these salts and the second part describes computational, spectroscopic and diffraction studies on their liquid structures. Related studies on ionic liquids of non-alkylimidazolium cation and non-fluoroanion are also briefly summarized.