A silver and water free metathesis reaction: a route to ionic liquidsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Details of experimental section, NMR analysis and mass spectra. See DOI: 10.1039/c3gc37034h

A versatile, cheaper, silver and water-free metathesis reaction was developed for imidazolium, phosphonium and pyrrolidinium based ionic liquids (ILs) associated with different anions such as dicyanamide, thiocyanate, tetrafluoroborate and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide. This route, using the melt of amine chloride as a solvent and reagent, favours the ion exchange reaction using anion salts of Na or Li, yielding ionic liquids in high purity (≥99.5%) and high yields (≥90%). This route is particularly well adapted for water miscible ILs preparation. A versatile, low-cost, silver and water-free metathesis reaction using melt amine chloride as a solvent yields ionic liquids in high purity (≥99.5%) and high yields (≥90%).