From ionic liquids to supramolecular polymers.

Charging forward: Ionic interactions presented in a multivalent fashion in small-molecule ionic liquids lead to functional polymer-like materials (see picture) that are consistent with the formation of a supramolecular ionic network. For example, the ionic material formed from a dication consisting of two covalently linked tetraalkyl phosphonium moieties and a porphyrin tetracarboxylate has a viscosity of 10(6) Pa s at 25 degrees C.