Hydrogen bonds: a structural insight into ionic liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted intensive attention in academia and industry due to their unique properties and potential applications. Nowadays, much interest is focused on finding out what is the main force that determines the properties of ionic liquids. Intuitively like NaCl, in high-temperature molten salt (HTMS) the electrostatic Coulomb force is regarded as the dominant factor that determines the behaviors of ILs. However, a large amount of evidence indicates that such a molten-salt-based simplified explanation is not consistent with the corresponding experimental results. Besides the Coulomb force, the hydrogen bond is another important noncovalent interaction in the IL and is closely related to some important properties and applications, as suggested in some new research results. Therefore in this review, we present results concerning the hydrogen bond in ILs, from the perspective of experiment and calculation, to shed light on its effects and roles. The deep insights into structure, in particular the hydrogen bonds, can provide us with a rational design for the new ILs to fulfill the demands in some complicated chemical processes.