Ionic Liquids in Green Sample Preparation

Ionic liquids are molten salts with melting points at or below 100 °C. They are a very versatile class of compounds with a chemical structure that can be tuned to achieve the desired physicochemical and solvation properties. For this reason, they have found wide application in the sample preparation field in both liquid- and solid-phase extraction. In addition, they have green features that include low vapor pressure, compatibility with microextraction approaches, and the possibility to develop automatable and high-throughput methods. This chapter will describe the main ionic liquid-based extraction methods with a focus on their greenness.