Doug MacFarlane received his BSc in chemistry and a BA in history from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He was awarded the Lord Rutherford Memorial Research Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Purdue University in the USA, where he received his PhD in 1982. After postdoctoral fellowships in France and New Zealand he took up a lecturing position at Monash University in 1983 and became Professor in 1995. Doug has served terms as Head of School and Deputy Dean of Science and also on the Board of Governors of the Society for Cryobiology. He is currently on the editorial boards of Chemical Communications, Australian Journal of Chemistry and Cryobiology. His research interests involve materials chemistry and a wide range of its applications from cryobiology to device engineering. He has published more than 300 papers and is a program leader in the Australian Centre for Electromaterials Science. He was also part of a team that won a Dupont Innovation Award in 2004.

Ionic liquids: New solvents from old salts
by Professor Douglas MacFarlane

Liquid salts have been known for a very long time and their use at high temperatures in processes such as aluminium production is well developed. In recent times, chemists have begun to recognise the value of salts which are liquid at or near room temperature: these are known as ionic liquids. Initially these were mainly of interest to electrochemists for use in various processes such as electrowinning of valuable metals, and as electrolytes in devices such as batteries, fuel cells and solar cells, where their low volatility and low flammability were of importance. However, over the last decade the unique properties of these liquids have found a wide range of applications including as benign solvents for ‘green chemistry’, as stabilising solvents for enzymes and proteins, and even as route to liquid pharmaceutical compounds. Douglas will briefly introduce the field and describe a number of these applications.

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