Graphene and graphene oxide can "lubricate" ionic liquids based on specific surface interactions leading to improved low-temperature hypergolic performance.

Space-qualified lubricants: Graphene and graphene oxide (r-GO) can strongly improve the low-temperature performance of hypergolic ionic liquids by reduction of viscosity. Key to success is to match the graphene type to the specific ionic-liquid functionality.

Tuning azolium azolate ionic liquids to promote surface interactions with titanium nanoparticles leading to increased passivation and colloidal stability.

The passivation and stability of suspensions of titanium nanoparticles in azolium azolate ionic liquids can be tuned by introducing metal specific binding sites in the azolate anion.

Hypergolic ionic liquids to mill, suspend, and ignite boron nanoparticles.

Boron nanoparticles prepared by milling in the presence of a hypergolic energetic ionic liquid (EIL) are suspendable in the EIL and the EIL retains hypergolicity leading to the ignition of the boron. This approach allows for incorporation of a variety of nanoscale additives to improve EIL properties, such as energetic density and heat of combustion, while providing stability and safe handling of the nanomaterials.