They are considered "green solvents" by many people, but if you are familiar with the scientific literature (as opposed to googling around in a second hand manner) one will discover that very little is known about the toxicology of ionic liquids, not that there is ONE car CULTist anywhere who gives a rat's ass about toxicology and cars.
As it happens, I have been reading a great deal on the topic of IL's recently, as an outgrowth of a lecture I attended, and some symposia, run by the internationally known IL expert Jim Wishart, who piqued my interest while speaking on the stability of free solvated electrons and their effect on the oxidation state of plutonium.
Wishart is a scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
In fact, by coincidence, while avoiding a certain class of non-thinkers on blogs because it is useless, in general, to talk to them about anything
real, I was considering a paper entitled "A review of ionic liquids towards supercritical fluid applications" (J. of Supercritical Fluids 43 (2007) 150–180) wherein the issue of toxicology was specifically and clearly addressed in these
exact words:
3.3. Toxicology of ILs
The green character of ILs has been usually related with their negligible vapor pressure; however their toxicology data have been very limited until now. Several authors <26–29> already mentioned this lack of toxicological data in the literature <30>. Although ILs will not evaporate and thus will not cause air pollution, it does not mean that they will not harm the environment if they enter. Most of ILs are water soluble and they may enter the aquatic environment by accidental spills or effluents.
The most commonly used ILs and are known to decompose in the presence of water and as a result hydrofluoric and phosphoric acids are formed <31>. Therefore, both toxicity and ecotoxicity information which provide metabolism and degradability of ILs are also required to label them as green solvents or investigate their environmental impact...
...
The impact of ILs on aquatic ecosystems is highly important since some of ILs have a high solubility in water. Maginn <33> provided the LC50 levels for two imidazolium-based ILs with Daphnia magna, common fresh water crustaceans. Due to the reason that D. magna are filter feeders at the base of the aquatic food chain, their responses to ILs are essential to understand how these new solvents may impact an environmental ecosystem. As ILs, 1-n-butyl 3-methylimidazolium cation with PF6
− and BF6
− anions are used and the results are tabulated in Table 2: These two ILs are
as toxic to Daphnia as benzene and even far more toxic than acetone, but much less toxic than ammonia, chlorine, phenol, etc.
In general, like many, I am intrigued by the potential of ionic liquids
under controlled conditions by
literate people who know what they are dealing with.
The idea of oblivious consumer car cultists driving around at high speed with these chemicals, however, personally appalls me, not that I am
ever startled by how elaborate the environmental shell games of the car CULTists can be and how little they care to find out about the potential environmental impact of their latest fantasy
du jour. The continuous contempt for environmental science (and other sciences) on the part of this sort is hardly a surprise, and goes back many, many, many, many years and is, after all, the basic phenomena underlying the career of amoral and immoral people like, say, Amory Lovins.
The J. Supercrit. Sci. paper, which can be accessed by any one who has rights at a good scientific library, is abstracted on line here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VMF-4NYSXM7-1&_user=10&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F2007&_alid=1144686092&_rdoc=2&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=6149&_sort=r&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=2&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=47fb3507f376cfabbb356c3cb48da15a">J. of Supercritical Fluids 43 (2007) 150–180