Ionic Liquids: An Environmentally Friendly Media for Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions

Ionic liquids are alternative reaction media of increasing interest and are regarded as an eco-friendly alternatives, of potential use in place of the volatile organic solvents typically used in current chemical processing methods. They are emerging as the smart and excellent solvents, which are made of positive and negative ions that they are liquids near room temperature. The nucleophilic substitution reaction is one of the important method for inserting functional groups into a carbon skeleton. Many nucleophilic substitution reactions have been found with enhanced reactivity and selectivity in ionic liquid. In this review, some recent interesting results of nucleophilic substitution reactions such as hydroxylations, ether cleavages, carbon-X (X= carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine) bond forming reactions, and ring opening of epoxides in ionic liquids are discussed.