Overview

• MIT researchers mixed sulfuric acid with about 30 nitrogen-bearing organic compounds under varied temperatures and pressures to produce ionic liquids in the lab.
• The synthesized ionic liquids remained fluid up to roughly 180 °C and at ultralow pressures where water cannot persist in liquid form.
• Experiments on basalt-like rock analogs showed that excess acid soaks into pores while stable droplets of ionic liquid endure on the surface.
• Ionic liquids occur naturally on Earth only in rare ant venom mixtures and have not yet been detected in any extraterrestrial environment.
• Next steps include testing which biomolecules can survive or function in these solvents and devising methods to identify non-water habitats on other planets.