Poly(ionic liquid)s: An update

This review presents a literature survey of recent work on poly(ionic liquid)s or polymerized ionic liquids (PILs), a class of polyelectrolytes that has attracted rapidly increasing interest over the past few years. The review begins with a short explanation of the interconnection as well as the intrinsic differences between PILs and ionic liquids. Recently reported PIL homopolymers with new chemical structures and synthetic trends are introduced as a complement to the overall PIL synthesis schemes reported previously. In addition, block copolymers and colloidal particles of PILs are described, followed by a discussion of the limitations of PILs due to structural instability under certain conditions and the efforts to understand PIL physics. Examples of recent applications of PILs across a multitude of fields, such as thermoresponsive materials, carbon materials, catalysis, porous polymers, separation and absorption materials, and energy harvesting/generation as well as several biological applications are described in detail.