Abstract
Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) are a unique class of materials that hold much promise for use in areas ranging from energy storage and delivery to electronically-controlled optical devices and green synthesis. Despite the already wide use of these materials, much remains to be understood about their properties and the underlying chemical and physical principles that account for them.
It is the purpose of this article to provide a brief introduction to ionic liquids, the applications where they find use, and to provide a sense of the challenges that remain in understanding these materials.