However, by making something out of ions that are bulky and asymmetrical (they have names such as 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium and hexafluorophosphate, which are as complicated as the ions they represent), the attractive electrical forces can be kept so far apart that the resulting substance is a liquid at room temperature.

ECONOMIST: Ionic solvent

They are carried out at a scale so small that room temperature induces wigglings of the AFM's constituent molecules that would blur the images, so the apparatus is kept at a cool -268C.

BBC: Atomic bond types discernible in single-molecule images