Reference electrodes for ionic liquids and molten salts

Abstract

Ionic liquids show promise as electrolytes for a host of electrochemical processes due to their favourable physical and electrochemical properties. However, use of conventional aqueous or non-aqueous reference electrodes with ionic liquids poses problems due to the existence of large junction potentials and possible contamination of the test solution. This chapter will begin with defining an ionic liquid/molten salt and their subclasses before describing the types of reference electrodes that have been used within these media and finally describe how to construct an IL reference electrode for electrochemical measurements.