Ionic liquids have attracted a great deal of interest in recent years, illustrated by their applications in a variety of areas involved with chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. Usually, the stabilities of ionic liquids are highlighted as one of their outstanding advantages. However, are ionic liquids really stable in all cases? This review covers the chemical stabilities of ionic liquids. It focuses on the reactivity of the most popular imidazolium ionic liquids at structural positions, including C2 position, N1 and N3 positions, and C4 and C5 positions, and decomposition on the imidazolium ring. Additionally, we discuss decomposition of quaternary ammonium and phosphonium ionic liquids and hydrolysis and nucleophilic reactions of anions of ionic liquids. The review aims to arouse caution on potential decomposition of ionic liquids and provides a guide for better utilization of ionic liquids.

Homogeneous catalysts generally show higher catalytic activities, while heterogeneous catalysts are more easily separated from products. To combine the advantages of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts has been of great interest for many years. Here, we report a kind of facilely prepared cross-linked poly­(ionic liquid)­s (PILs) with swelling property to increase catalytic activities of heterogeneous catalysts. The swelling ability of PILs was greatly affected by cross-linking density and chain length of substituents on imidazolium, and the unique swelling property prompted the nonporous PILs to contact with substrates sufficiently, enhancing their catalytic activities similar to homogeneous ionic liquid monomers.

An effective one‐pot method for the conversion of carbon dioxide, ethylene oxide, and amines to 3‐aryl‐2‐oxazolidinones has been developed. This one‐pot method consists of two parallel reactions and a subsequent cascade reaction between the two products of the corresponding parallel reactions. Notably, the binary ionic liquids of 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl‐imidazolium bromide and 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl‐imidazolium acetate demonstrate a synergistic catalytic effect on this new strategy. 1‐Butyl‐3‐methyl‐imidazolium bromide is essential in two parallel reactions owing to the good nucleophilicity and leaving ability of bromide, and 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl‐imidazolium acetate plays a dominant role in the subsequent cascade reaction owing to the strong basicity of acetate. In addition, the binary ionic liquids can be used thrice without significant loss of catalytic activity.

The lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery is considered one of the most promising technologies for next-generation energy storage. To realise its practical applications, electrodes with high areal sulfur loading, low-cost raw materials,...