Most potent therapeutics fail to reach clinical trials and FDA-approval due to their inability to reachtheir target in a safe and controlled manner. To overcome these barriers, nanotechnology can be employed to create vehicles that aid in the delivery of drugs. One promising class of drug delivery vehicles are nanoemulsions, which are nanometer-sized particles that contain a hydrophobic droplet that houses and protects the therapeutics. Nanoemulsions have seen success in the delivery of drugs as several nanoemulsion formulations have received FDA-approved. However, despite their success, one of their limiting factors is their lack of diverse hydrophobic components. Typically, the hydrophobic droplet is a lipid, and as a result, only drugs that are lipophilic can be dissolved. This means that hydrophilic small molecule and biological therapeutics cannot be formulated, significantly reducing the potential of this drug delivery vehicle In this thesis, two unique strategies are employed to overcome the limitations of nanoemulsions. The majority of the chapters describe the synthesis, characterization, and application of hydrophobic ionic liquids (HILs), which are investigated as replacements for the traditional lipid droplet of nanoemulsions. HILs are a promising material as they can solubilize hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and even biological drugs due to their unique nanostructure. Chapter 2 describes the design and synthesis of several classes of novel HILs, whereas Chapter 3 discusses the physicochemical properties and toxicities of select HILs. In Chapter 4, certain HILs are explored as components for drug delivery formulations, especially as nanoemulsions. The collective results highlight that diverse HILs can be rapidly produced, where they possess advantageous characteristics and low toxicity. Moreover, they can be successful employed as a component for nanoemulsions with the capability of transporting various drugs classes. Chapter 5 represents a different approach to nanoemulsions, where instead of utilizing a new material to dissolve non-hydrophobic therapeutics, the hydrophilic drug of choice was tuned to become lipophilic. Here siRNA, a potent nucleic acid therapeutic, was chosen as the model drug and was noncovalently modified to become hydrophobic by complexing the nucleic acid with a cationic lipid. This allowed the drug to be formulated in a nanoemulsion composed of the FDA-approved oil, medium chain triglycerides, as the hydrophobic phase. The nanoemulsion is characterized and evaluated in a tumor murine model, where it facilitates significant gene knockdown with a good safety profile.