One of the Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education was recently awarded to Queen's University Ionic Liquids Laboratories (QUILL), Belfast, UK for their groundbreaking work on the development of ionic liquids as alternatives to conventional solvents. 

Professor Ken Seddon, Director of QUILL, is widely recognised as a pioneer in the field of ionic liquids. He has been associated with the RSC's Green Chemistry journal since it was first launched in 1998. Currently a member of the journal's International Advisory Board, he has published a number of very highly cited papers in this exciting area of chemistry. His work has contributed to the establishment of QUILL as the world's leading centre in ionic liquids research. 

'Ionic liquids act as solvents for a broad spectrum of chemical processes and can dissolve a wide range of materials - even rocks, coal and almost anything organic - amazingly well,' explained Seddon. 'However, unlike conventional solvents, they do not emit vapours. Put quite simply, they have remarkable properties which have tremendous applications in the development of clean technology for manufacturing processes. They are the basis of a whole new industrial technology.'

Ionic liquids are non-volatile organic salts with melting points often lower than room temperature. Used in place of more traditional organic solvents, they have the advantage of eliminating volatile organic compound emissions and also improving yields. 

Celebrating a successful first year of publication, RSC Publishing will provide free access to all readers of its two new interdisciplinary journals, Soft Matter and Molecular BioSystems.  The offer will be available for three months and will allow readers to access all of the original research, high profile reviews, news articles and editorials that have propelled the journals to the forefront of their respective fields.  'The motivation to launch two interdisciplinary journals originated from a need identified from within the research communities' explains Robert Parker, Editorial Director at the RSC. 'New research areas were developing but the work did not fit within the scope of traditional discipline journals.  Our two new journals have offered a unique and targeted forum for communication for these communities.  We have been overwhelmed by the positive response they have received.'