Electrodeposition of metals and semiconductors in air- and water-stable ionic liquids.

In addition to their stability, the advantages of air- and water-stable ionic liquids over chloroaluminate ionic liquids, which were intensively investigated in the past, are that they are easy to dry, purify, and handle. Moreover, some of these ionic liquids have an extremely large electrochemical window of more than 5 V, and hence they give access to the electrodeposition of many metals and semiconductors, such as Ta, Ti, Si, and Ge. The results to date for the electrodeposition of metals and semiconductors in the most popular air- and water-stable ionic liquids are presented.