An unusual common ion effect promotes dissolution of metal salts in room-temperature ionic liquids: a strategy to obtain ionic liquids having organic–inorganic mixed cations

A simple strategy has been reported to prepare new ionic liquids with binary systems of organic–inorganic cations exploiting the common ion effect, i.e. dissolving metal salts with organic or inorganic anions (bistriflylimide or nitrate) in ionic liquids bearing the same anions. The resulting concentrated solutions of metal cations in ionic environments, which may have great potential for electrochemical processes, have been characterized by X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS)