For over a decade, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted enormous attention from scientists across the globe. The history of these compounds traces back to 1914 where the inception of the first IL with a melting point of 12°C was made. Years later, a progression of the remarkable related compounds have been discovered. Out of many analogous compounds realized from time to time, the imidazolium class of ionic liquid is the most studied because of their air and moisture stability. The physicochemical properties of ILs differ significantly depending on the anionic/cationic species and alkyl chain length. ILs have found application in many scientific fields the most recent being good solvents and stabilizing agents in the nanomaterial synthesis. Studies have showed that ILs not only stabilize as synthesized nanomaterials but also provide environmentally green routes towards nanomaterials engineering.
Part of the book: Recent Advances in Ionic Liquids
In the last decade, there has been an increasing trend in the exploitation of indium chalcogenides in various applications which range from water splitting reactions in renewable energy to degradation of dyes in environmental rehabilitation. This trend is attributed to the interesting and unique properties of indium chalcogenide nanomaterials which can be easily tuned through a common approach: particle size, shape and morphology engineering. In this chapter, we outline the preferred attributes of indium chalcogenide nanomaterials which are deemed suitable for recent applications. Furthermore, we explore recent reaction protocols which have been reported to yield good quality indium chalcogenide nanomaterials of multinary configurations, e.g. binary and ternary compounds, among others.
Part of the book: Post-Transition Metals