The characteristics of functional liquid materials, from electrolytes in batteries, through solutions of peptides and pharmaceutical formulations, to lubricants under shear, depend on the short-range interactions between neighbouring molecules and ions. These give rise to the characteristic local structure of liquids, and shape their properties. The liquid structure is more challenging to measure than solid, crystalline materials, but can be uniquely probed by combining neutron diffraction with isotopic substitution, most significantly using H/D-substitution to take advantage of the differential scattering cross-sections between of the isotopes.

Carbon capture and hydrogen storage are, globally, two of the most critical research and policy topics, due to their energetic and environmental importance. This drives the invention of materials which can meet these technical challenges in an economic way. Porous liquids (PLs) have emerged recently (ca.250/publications in the last 10 years), as ‘super solvents’ due to their high gas sorption capacities and gas separation capabilities. These derive from the presence of empty pores within the liquid phase. Critically, unlike porous solids, due to their fluidity they can be implemented in continuous flow processes. Currently, PL porosity derives from a “porogen”, which ranges from free discrete molecular cages up to porous colloidal particles, dissolved or dispersed in a liquid.