Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field.

The chapters "Ionic Liquid-Liquid Chromatography: A New General Purpose Separation Methodology", "Proteins in Ionic Liquids: Current Status of Experiments and Simulations", "Lewis Acidic Ionic Liquids" and "Quantum Chemical Modeling of Hydrogen Bonding in Ionic Liquids" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.