Ionic liquids (ILs) have been extensively studied for liquid¿liquid extractions and have recently been examined for the purification and separation of crude oil components. Of interest in this regard is the extent to which ILs (protic and aprotic forms) interact with aromatic components. As well as conventional aprotic ILs, interest in protic ILs has expanded. However, despite their promise their structures and solvent-solute interactions have not been studied significantly. This project aims to examine the interactions of two exemplar imidazolium based protic ILs with benzene and to compare the interactions obtained from the dialkylimidazolium based aprotic ILs studied previously by our group. By comparing the protic to apotic forms of the ILs with benzene it will be possible to analyse the balance between hydrogen bonding vs van der Waals forces in solutions.