The growing number of applications of ionic liquids (ILs) in industry have brought attention to the green credentials of synthesis, as well as their cyto-and ecotoxicities both for their use and accidental leakage into the environment. With the above in mind, we designed a class of ILs with either cations bearing gluconamide motif and aliphatic side chains or the anion incorporating gluconic acid (derived from food waste) moiety. An ionic liquid with imidazolium cation with an appended gluconic amide (bearing 5 hydroxyl groups) moiety was also synthesised for a useful comparison. Different structural features were considered, placing emphasis on the nature and length of the alkyl chain and the nature of the anion. For comparison, two ILs with one hydroxyl group and another without any hydroxyl-groups were prepared.

Ionic liquid gels, which are derived from renewable sugars, have been efficiently used as sorbent systems in desulfurisation of fuels.

A sugar-based ionic liquid ligand coordinated to cobalt(ii) exhibits magnetic switching and marked thermochromism in spectator ionic liquid solution/polymer films over a convenient temperature range (20–60 °C), resulting in a potential energy storage system.

Desulfurization of fuel, that avoids the introduction in the atmosphere of toxic sulfur volatile compounds, usually formed during combustion, is a viable strategy to reduce pollution. To find new efficient...

Dedicated to Prof. Franco Cozzi in the occasion of his 70th birthday.Supramolecular gels are a fascinating class of materials, originated by the self-assembly of low molecular weight molecules. Underpinned by non-covalent interactions, they find application in a diverse range of fields. Among these, supramolecular gels can be considered as organized, nonconventional reaction media, able to influence reactivity in a radically different way, compared with what happens in solution. This short review will focus on this aspect, covering literature from 2010 onwards, addressing the application of supramolecular gels as reaction media. In particular, in the first section we explore organocatalytic reactions in gel phase, with wide synthetic relevance, such as aldol and Mannich reactions as well as Friedel Crafts or ester hydrolysis processes. Subsequently, focus is laid on metal-catalysed reactions, among which relevance is given to widely used reactions like crosscoupling and click reactions. Then, the final sections describe the use of supramolecular gels as reaction media for photoand biocatalysed processes.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are a class of non-conventional solvents, which since almost two decades continue to stir a burgeoning interest in different fields of present-day chemical research, with few similar...

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Self assembly of fluorescent diimidazolium NDI salts showed properties of aggregates changing with alkyl chain length, with an odd–even effect.