ABSTRACT
A molten salt is a liquid consisting of a compound or mixture of compounds in which all, or virtually all, of the components are ionic. Liquid NaCl (m.p. 801˚C), KSCN (m.p. 173.2˚C), and pyridinium chloride (m.p. 146.0˚C) are thus one-component molten salts. On the other hand, an ionic liquid, a term also used to refer to a salt solution, is a molten salt that is a liquid at or near room temperature. Although organic chemistry in molten salts has been known for decades,
molten salts were and continue to be used primarily in the study of inorganic chemistry and electrochemistry. With the fairly recent development of ionic liquids, however, the study of organic and organometallic chemistry in ionic media has come to the fore.
