Acronym in chemistry: EIL for energetic ionic liquid

By combining the definitions for an ionic liquid and an energetic chemical substance, an energetic ionic liquid (EIL) is an energetic salt with a melting point below 100 °C.

Energetic compounds have a high energy content and are typically applied as fuels or explosives. Naturally, they are hazardous. Methods that allow derivatization of molecular energetic compounds into ionic ones have been suggested to provide safer routes to better manageable energetic materials.

Energetic ionic compounds such as ammonium, hydrazonium, and guanidinium salts are known for quite some time. Current design of EILs considers cations and anions that both have a high nitrogen content, typically two to four nitrogen atoms as heteroatoms in a five-membered aromatic ring with alkyl side chains as well as azido, nitro or cyano groups as substituents. The anions may also by acyclic ions such as nitrate, halides or perchlorate.

Keywords: advanced materials, molecular design, ionic liquid design, physical and chemical properties, hazardous materials, material safety

Selected literature
[1] Marcin Smigla, Andreas Metlen, and Robin D. Rogers: The Second Evolution of Ionic Liquids: From Solvents and Separations to Advanced Materials—Energetic Examples from the Ionic Liquid Cookbook. Acc. Chem. Res. 2007, 40, pp. 1182-1192.
DOI: 10.1021/ar7001304.
[2] Arindrajit Chowdhury, Stefan T. Thynell and Ping Lin: Confined rapid thermolysis/FTIR/ToF studies of tetrazolium-based energetic ionic liquids. Thermochim. Acta 2009, 485, pp. 1-3.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tca.2008.11.018.
[3] Cesar Cadena: Molecular Modeling of the Thermophysical and Transport Properties of Ionic Liquids. Dissertation, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Sept. 2006. PDF-version.

Open access to thermodynamic data (ThermoML-encoded) for ionic liquids including EILs:
http://www.axeleratio.com/thmlbib/main/chemindexes.htm