Ionic liquids (ILs) were initially hailed as a green alternative to traditional solvents because of their almost non-existent vapor pressure as ecological replacement of most common volatile solvents in industrial processes for their damaging effects on the environment. It is common knowledge that they are not as green as desired, and more thought must be put into the biological consequences of their industrial use. Still, compared to the amount of research studying their physicochemical properties and potential applications in different areas, there is a scarcity of scientific papers regarding how these substances interact with different organisms. The intent of this review was to compile the information published in this area since 2015 to allow the reader to better understand how, for example, bacteria, plants, fish, etc., react to the presence of this family of liquids. In general, lipophilicity is one of the main drivers of toxicity and thus the type of cation. The anion tends to play a minor (but not negligible) role, but more research is needed since, owing to the very nature of ILs, except for the most common ones (imidazolium and ammonium-based), many of them are subject to only one or two articles.

The circular economy plays an important role in the preparation and recycling of polymers. Research groups in different fields, such as materials science, pharmaceutical and engineering, have focused on building sustainable polymers to minimize the release of toxic products. Recent studies focused on the circular economy have suggested developing new polymeric materials based on renewable and sustainable sources, such as using biomass waste to obtain raw materials to prepare new functional bio-additives. This review presents some of the main characteristics of common polymer additives, such as antioxidants, antistatic agents and plasticizers, and recent research in developing bio-alternatives. Examples of these alternatives include the use of polysaccharides from agro-industrial waste streams that can be used as antioxidants, and chitosan which can be used as an antistatic agent.

Published data on the thermophysical properties of ionic liquids are normally in disagreement if results from different laboratories, using different samples and different measurement protocols, are compared. This fact was recognized years ago at the level of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), which established IUPAC Project 2002-005-1-100 (Thermodynamics of ionic liquids, ionic liquid mixtures, and the development of standardized systems), with the main objective of recommending a reference ionic liquid, making reference-quality measurements on selected thermophysical properties of both the pure ionic liquid and its mixtures, establishing recommended values for the properties measured, and providing recommendations on measurement methods. The ionic liquid chosen was 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [C₆mim][(CF₃SO₂)₂N], because of its stability, low viscosity compared with that of most common ionic liquids, low water solubility, ease of preparation and purification, and commercial availability. Due to its hydrophobicity, it is capable of being obtained very pure, with water amounts as small as 20 ppm. This paper reports new results obtained with the sample of [C₆mim][(CF₃SO₂)₂N] synthesized in the IUPAC project, namely on density, speed of sound, surface tension, and refractive index, as well as thermal conductivity of a commercial sample at P = 0.1 MPa, as a function of temperature, and proposes reference data and reference data correlations for the density, speed of sound, heat capacity, surface tension, viscosity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, refractive index, ion self-diffusion coefficient, and melting temperature of this ionic liquid at 0.1 MPa, as a function of temperature, using these and other data reported up to July 2020. Rheological measurements demonstrated that this ionic liquid is Newtonian.