Kinetics of radical polymerization in ionic liquids

Ionic liquids are liquids composed entirely of ions – large organic cations and inorganic or organic anions. Due to different kind of interactions between cationic and anionic moieties, such as electrostatic interactions but also dispersion forces and hydrogen bonding, they are inhomogeneous on microscale forming polar and non-polar domains. The nature of ionic liquids, making them distinctly different from conventional organic solvents, may affect the kinetics of chemical reactions proceeding in these solvents. Specific interactions between components of ionic liquid result in relatively high viscosity of those media and especially may affect microviscosity in the close vicinity of reacting species. Specific non-directional interactions such as electrostatic or dispersion forces and directional interactions, such as e.g. hydrogen bonding between components of ionic liquids and reactants may affect both translational and rotational mobility of reaction species as well as activation parameters. These factors which should be considered when analyzing the kinetics of radical polymerization in ionic liquid media are briefly but critically discussed in this mini-review.