The group lead by Prof. Hans-Peter Steinrück and Florian Maier pioneered the research area of Ionic Liquid Surface Science addressing the liquid/vacuum and liquid/solid interface of ionic liquids (ILs). Using an interdisciplinary approach, in cooperation with the synthetically oriented group of Prof. Peter Wasserscheid, the fundamental relations between the chemical structure of known and new ILs and their bulk and surface/interface properties as well as their reactivity are studied. In the focus are non-functionalized and functionalized ILs, mixtures of ILs, transition metal complexes dissolved in ILs, in situ reaction studies and the interaction of gases and organic molecules with ILs (see publication list). The studies benefit from the extremely low vapor pressure of most ILs, which enables their investigation with surface science methods in ultra-high vacuum, in particular with angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS). The most recent work is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant since 2016.