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[a] Ionic liquids, which are organic salts that are liquid around room temperature, are often regarded as a new class of technological fluid with potential applications in cleaner reaction systems and separation processes.[1] Ionic liquids can be produced in numerous combinations of cation and anion, allowing the fine tuning of their physical properties.[1] As a consequence of this novelty and variety, solvation in ionic liquids is not yet well-understood. Herein, this problem is addressed by focusing on the interactions of small solute molecules dissolved in room-temperature ionic liquids, using computer simulations to explore both the nature of the solute±ionic liquid interactions and the microscopic structure of the solutions. The solutes studied range from small, spherical molecules to quadrupolar and polar species, such as carbon dioxide and[a] J.

We studied liquid water confined within nanopores which present a high level of hydrophobicity thanks to a new method of synthesis. We found that the liquid state persists down to temperatures much lower than in the bulk and in hydrophilic materials of comparable sizes, allowing us to define a thermodynamic limit for the melting/crystallization of water.