Imidazolium salts and their polymeric materials for biological applications

Imidazolium salts, distinct from their parent imidazoles, are made up of a discrete cation and anion pair, and have found widespread utility as ionic liquids. A lesser known function of such imidazolium salts includes the application of these salts in biological systems, and several areas of bio-applications, including antitumour, antimicrobial, antioxidant and bioengineering applications, will be presented and discussed in this review. The wide-ranging applications and versatility of these imidazolium salts stem from the ease of their structural variation, in which properties such as amphiphilicity, lipophilicity and solubility can be tuned. Imidazolium salts, with their versatile amphiphilic structures, have tunable properties and wide-ranging bio-applications.