The present invention relates to ionic liquids for use in chemical applications and capable of serving the dual function of solvent and liquid support. The ionic liquid lends itself to a method of synthesizing oligomers selected from the group consisting of oligopeptides, oligosaccharides and oligonucleotides, comprising contacting a first monomer unit with an ionic liquid at reaction conditions to provide an ionic liquid bound monomer unit; and contacting the ionic liquid bound monomer unit with at least one further monomer unit at reaction conditions to provide an ionic liquid bound oligomer comprising from 2 to 30 monomer units. The method lends itself to large scale manufacture of oligopeptides, oligosaccharides and oligonucleotides.