Flexible design of ionic liquids for membrane interactions

In the last years, ionic liquids gained a lot of interest in materials sciences. Especially their interactions with biomolecules like lipids or proteins became more and more fascinating. One substance class of ionic liquids are imidazolium salts, which are usually known as the precursors of the more prominent N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs). Due to their high stability and easy synthesis, imidazolium salts became more attractive for applications in biological systems. In 2015, imidazolium salts bearing long alkyl chains in their backbone were established as lipid analogs. Interestingly, different effects of the intercalation into a membrane can be observed depending on the characteristics of the structure. Within this tutorial, we would like to highlight the modular synthesis of these compounds leading to a versatile tool box of lipid analogs that can be adjusted depending on the required needs.