Synthesis of new chiral amino acid ionic liquids

The rapidly growing research interest in ionic liquids (ILs) is undoubtedly stimulated by the development of green chemistry. Commonly used ILs, however, are synthetic chemicals and are therefore not as green as desired. Amino acids and their derivatives are the most abundant natural source of quaternary nitrogen precursors, however they have rarely been directly used to prepare the cations in ILs. 1